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Managing Knowledge for Innovation

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Submitted By musicboxboy
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Managing Knowledge for Innovation: The Role of Cooperation, Competition, and Alliance Nationality
Haisu Zhang, Chengli Shu, Xu Jiang, and Alan J. Malter
ABSTRACT
Strategic alliances play a critical role in global innovation. Firms can overcome resource constraints and achieve superior innovative performance not only by using internal resources but also by acquiring knowledge-based capabilities from alliance partners. In this study, the authors investigate how knowledge acquired from alliance partners affects organizational knowledge creation, which in turn leads to innovative performance. The authors propose that the knowledge–innovation relationship is stronger in international alliances than domestic alliances. The results from a survey of 127 German firms engaged in strategic alliances confirm that knowledge creation mediates the effect of knowledge acquisition on innovative performance and that international alliances strengthen the effect of knowledge creation on innovative performance. In addition, the authors find that interfirm cooperation and competition coexist in strategic alliances and that both factors increase knowledge acquisition, though from different motivational bases. Keywords: innovation, strategic alliance, knowledge management, cooperation, competition

A

lliances are a central element of most company business models (Kaplan, Norton, and Rugelsjoen 2010). The logic of working with a strategic partner is especially compelling in increasingly competitive global markets (Ohmae 1989) and has gained new momentum in the wake of the 2008–2009 world financial crisis (Ghemawat 2010). Yet at least half of all alliances fail (Hughes and Weiss 2007; Kaplan, Norton, and Rugelsjoen 2010), and even more underperform because of inertia and overly rigid adherence to the initial alliance agreement (Ernst and Bamford 2005).

To succeed, alliance

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