Coevolution of alliance portfolio and organization of new technology-based firms: A case study of the Mobile Internet industry
Coevolution of alliance portfolios and organizations: A cross sector analysis of new technology based firms in the European Mobile Internet industry / Tillmann von Schroeter, EXIST-HighTEPP at the University of Bamberg. Strategic alliances and partnerships have extensively been studied over the past twenty years. Research has shown that they are a way to gain resources in a cost-efficient manner, especially for new firms with limited resources. In addition, alliances can help to spread technological development risks. One may conclude, that for new technology-based firms (NTBF) strategic alliances are a logical and timely response to intense and rapid changes in economic and technological environments.Given that the benefits of a partnership change over time, it is difficult however, to determine how the optimal alliance portfolio should be structured. NTBFs frequently face the problem that some partnerships in their alliance portfolio (defined as the collection of all partnerships) are not efficient (defined as time and resources devoted over the received benefits). Therefore, it is important on one hand to understand how benefits are derived from an alliance portfolio and what its impact on the organizational development is. On the other hand, it is critical to recognize the superior forces, which drive the alliance portfolio dynamics.One partnership intensive industry, which is both high-tech and entrepreneurial, is Mobile Internet. Four forces - high levels of required investments, changing industry barriers, significant dependencies due to a highly integrated value chain, and fast technological innovations - largely explain why this is the case. This study analyzes how alliance portfolios influence the organizational development of NTBF?s in this industry, and what impact an efficiently managed alliance portfolio has on company performance. In addition, it researches if organizational changes trigger structural changes concerning the alliance portfolio and, therefore, its dynamics.The research is based on nine in-depth case studies selected from three sectors of the mobile Internet industry and comprises three major steps: (1) Industry analyses based on secondary data (industry reports and white papers), conferences, and preparatory interviews with industry experts such as mobile operators and consultants. (2) Company analyses based on secondary data including annual reports, press clippings, Internet sites, and databases such as Factiva, OneSource, and Hoover's. (3) Two-hour face-to-face interviews with one or two founders or managers from the companies, with follow-up telephone interviews on specific questions. In summary, 400 pages of interview transcripts, 5,000 pages of corporate information and 15 industry reports are the basis of this study.A profile has been established for each company showing its organizational development over time (characteristics such as its structure, management style, and resource requirements), its alliance portfolio (partnership foundation, degree of intensity) and its performance (survival, revenue development, profits and employees, and awards as a proxy for technological achievements). The efficiency of alliance portfolios is analyzed by comparing resource requirements with the shape of the alliance portfolio at every development stage. Pajec, a software tool to analyze large social networks, supports this analysis. The research on alliances has focused more on dyadic relationships than on alliance portfolios. This explains why later research suffers from the deficiency that the process of alliance portfolio formation and transformation has not been fully addressed. Although recent studies have stressed the portfolio approach, they have predominantly assessed static scenarios. The impact of organizational development stages on the alliance portfolio structure remains largely undiscovered.The contribution of this research, offering an extensive analysis of the alliances of NTBFs in the European Mobile Internet industry, is twofold: (1) Life cycle approaches, the RBV, and network theory (approaches which have until now been regarded separately most of the time) are linked into one comprehensive model. This model adds to the underdeveloped area of the dynamics of alliances. It contains the - time-dependent - aspect of alliance portfolio efficiency by comparing NTBF's portfolio structure with its resource requirements depending on the position in its life cycle. (2) It provides managers of NTBFs with a tool to structure and manage their alliance portfolio pro-actively.
Alternative title: | Titel englisch |
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Year of publication: |
2004
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Authors: | Tillmann L. von Schroeter |
Publisher: |
Universit?tsbibliothek Bamberg / Fakult?t Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften. Fakult?t Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften |
Subject: | Electronic Commerce | Unternehmensgr?ndung | Innovation | Netzwerk | Unternehmen | Organisation | Online-Publikation | Allianz Netzwerke | Allianz Portfolii | Phasenmodelle | Alliance networks | alliance portfolios | resource-based view of the firm | relational view | dynamic capabilities | development theory | Life cycle models |
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