Abstract

This study offers an examination of the determinants of innovative success in R&D alliances. The relative importance of a set of alliance design factors (e.g., alliance structure characteristics such as number and type of partners, and firm-level attributes such as prior alliance expe­rience and existing R&D capabilities) and alliance management factors (e.g., frequency of communication among partners, effectiveness of governance arrangements). These factors are hypothesized to influence the alliance partners' ability to exchange knowledge and collaborate in R&D, and thereby influence their ability to produce innovations. The study uses a survey dataset of 397 firms involved in 142 R&D alliances that were supported by the Advanced Technology Program. Three measures of alliance success at the firm level are utilized: a perceptual measure of overall value, patent application, and financial value realized from technology commercialization. Alliance designers are largely successful in "optimally" choosing the structure of alliances. The empirical analysis shows that the number of alliance partners and the presence of competitor firms have little effect on alliance outcomes. Among the alliance management factors, effective governance arrangements and frequent communication are found to have an important and positive impact on alliance outcomes. Finally, the results show that more ambitious projects that "reach for the stars" have more successful outcomes.

Keywords: Alliances, Innovation, Knowledge Management.

Return to Table of Contents or go to next section of interim report.

Date created: August 29, 2006
Last updated: September 11, 2006

ATP website comments: webmaster-atp@nist.gov  / Technical ATP inquiries: InfoCoord.ATP@nist.gov.

NIST is an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department
Privacy policy / Security Notice / Accessibility Statement / Disclaimer / Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) /
No Fear Act Policy / NIST Information Quallity Standards / ExpectMore.gov (performance of federal programs)