• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.19-37
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• 2015

Forming interfirm collaborative relationships has become a key aspect of a firm's marketing strategies to create value for customers and achieve greater firm performance. While empirical findings are mixed in previous studies, this study is an effort to identify boundary conditions for the benefits of marketing alliances. We investigate internal and environmental factors that may magnify or constrain the effect of marketing alliances on firm profitability. Given the complementary relationship between marketing and R&D activities, we focus on a firm's R&D intensity as an internal factor that may magnify the value of marketing alliances for firm performance. For environmental factors, we focus on industry turbulence and industry competitiveness. Industry turbulence refers to the degree to which industry market conditions change quickly and unpredictably, whereas industry competitiveness refers to the degree to which a firm faces competition in the industry. By testing these factors, we are intended to reveal boundary conditions that determine the value of marketing alliances for firm profitability. The analysis of firms in the diverse industries shows that while the main effect of marketing alliances on firm profitability is not significant, it becomes more positive when R&D investment is more intensive or when industry environment is more turbulent. The results of this study imply that just forming more marketing alliances may not be enough to increase firm profitability. Our findings imply that marketing alliances become more effective in a dynamically changing industry environment. That is, firms can cope with industry uncertainties more effectively by forming marketing alliances. At the same time, the moderating effect of R&D intensity implies that the internal investments in R&D magnify the effect of marketing alliances on firm profitability. The findings of this study contributes to the existing alliance literature in three aspects. First, this study enhances our understanding of the contingent value of marketing alliances by testing both internal and external factors that may influence the effectiveness of marketing alliances. Second, this study responds to the need for research that investigates actual performance resulting from interfirm relationships. Third, while previous studies primarily focused on a specific industry, this study extend previous findings of the boundary conditions for the benefits of marketing alliances in a broader context.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.71-91
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to identify the major determinants of performance of the R&D alliances, with an aim toward raising the success rate in cooperative relationships. In particular, this study assesses whether the success factors of purchasing relationship identified in the literature apply equally to SMEs in Korea. The results of this study indicate that inter-firm cooperation, experienced cooperation, and efficiency of government support have positive impacts on the purchase rate of new products. On the other hand, R&D intensity and resources of competencies of the firm do not influence it. Additionally, market attractiveness does not moderate the effects of the five independent variables on the purchase. The extracted determinants according to the results of surveys give valuable and practical hints to the SMEs when they make a decision on their R&D alliances with large enterprises.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.39-46
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• 2019

Research has shown that alliances with external partners are valuable to foster internal R & D efforts. However, it is not well known how to take advantage of the potential benefits of strategic alliances to create innovative outcomes. This study examines the value of strategic alliances and analyzes the role of human capital in the impact of strategic alliances on innovation performance. This study focuses on whether the absorptive capacity of human capital affects firm innovation through interaction with strategic alliances. In the analysis using 2,205 Korean venture firm data, strategic alliances have a positive effect on innovation performance. However, the moderating role of human capital in the relationship between strategic alliances and innovation performance shows a significant negative impact. This implies that the ability to internalize knowledge and information acquired from external partners into the firm is important. This study provides valuable insights for managers who want to enhance the effectiveness of strategic alliances by considering the interaction of strategic alliances and human capital.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.92-115
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• 2012

The problem Japanese universities face is exactly the same as that of German universities: no international recognition in world rankings of universities despite their high levels of postwar economic and technological developments. This was indeed one reason why world-class Japanese firms, such as Toyota and Sony, have avoided working closely with Japanese universities for R&D partnership and new technology commercialization. To resolve this problem, the Japanese government has continuously implemented aggressive policies of the internationalization, privatization, liberalization, and privatization of universities since the onset of the economic recession in 1989 in order to revitalize the Japanese economy through radical innovation projects between universities and firms. National projects of developing medical robots for Japan's ageing society are some of the ambitious examples that emphasize feed-forward learning in innovation. However, this paper argues that none of these programs of fostering university-firm alliances toward feed-forward learning has been successful in promoting the world ranking of Japanese universities, although they showed potentials of reinforcing their conventional strength of introducing $kaizen$ through feedback learning of tacit knowledge. It is therefore argued in this paper that Japanese universities and firms should focus on feedback learning as a way to motivate firm-university R&D alliances.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.149-161
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• 2017

This paper analyzed the impact of alliances on the market value of the 106 bio-pharmaceutical companies listed on the KOSPI or KOSDAQ in Korea by using the 'Event study methodology'. Although general alliances did not impact the corporate value significantly, in the analysis corresponding to the alliance type, R&D alliances created positive value, as technology acts as an important factor for the alliance. Among the R&D alliances, 'Technology Transfer alliances', in particular 'Development Technology Transfer alliances', had a positive influence on the corporate value. We interpret these differentiated results as market tends to screen for types of alliances. Meanwhile, we confirmed that the possibility of a stock price increase before the alliance announcement is high by analyzing the impact of the timing of corporate alliance announcements on the company value. It can be inferred that the possibility of information leakage is high. This paper analyzes the impact of alliances for managers and practitioners seeking to create value for domestic bio-pharmaceutical companies, and suggests the need to prevent information leakages by establishing a suitable policy.

• Proceedings of the Technology Innovation Conference
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• 2002.06a
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• pp.225-237
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• 2002

The term "Strategic Alliance" which is not exactly defined in legal sector can apply to a wide variety of collaborative activities between firms, In spite of the vague conception Strategic Alliance, it has many benefit in the market. Especially, cooperation in R&D may reduce duplicative and unnecessary costs, lead to significant exchange of ideas and experience and thus result in products and technologies being developed more rapidly than would otherwise be the case. As a general rule, R&D cooperation tends to increase overall R&D activities. However, R&D agreements may cause competition problems such as restrictives effects on prices, output, innovation and variety or quality of products, To prevent its problems, competition authorities set out guidelines. The antitrust analysis of strategic alliances including R&D cooperation will vary according the substance of the actual agreement.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.57-77
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• 2021

Purpose - International strategic alliance has been regarded as a strategic decision made by firms' managerial problems and ensure performance growth. From the perspective of the proactive behavior for changing strategies in a global market, this study aims to identify whether performance feedback influences firms' decisions to pursue strategic alliances. This study examines the effects of performance feedback on performance when firms use strategic alliances. Design/methodology - To analyze the impact of performance feedback on forming an international strategic alliance, this study adopt the concept of performance feedback to develop a research model and our hypotheses. Thus, this study used a two-stage least squares unbalanced panel data analysis with random effects. This study is based on 24,543 observations from Korean manufacturing firms from 2007 to 2016. Findings - The results show that firms pursue the formation of strategic alliances more actively, if their past financial and R&D performance are lower than their aspiration level, based on the result of performance feedback. An in split sample analysis for examining the effect of a firm's technology sophistication based on the OECD's classification, negative innovation performance discrepancy has positive effects on the probability of international alliance in high-tech and medium-high-tech industries. Financial performance also improves when a firm decides to form a strategic alliance based on the results of performance feedback. Originality/value - This research extends recent efforts to better understand the effect of performance feedback on firms' performance when they use strategic alliances. These findings suggest that the CEOs and managers of firms should consider the performance feedback perspective when deciding to pursue a strategic alliance to improve performance. In other words, the decision-makers in a firm must analyze and consider various complex variables inside and outside the firm and expand such subjects of examination to more complex and dynamic factors.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.77-108
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• 1992

Many economists and policymakers regard the ratio of R&D investment to GNP to be a good indicator of a nation's technological capabilities. Consequently, their major policy recommendation to promote technological development is a rapid expansion in R&D investment. However, a low R&D ratio does not necessarily mean less efforts at technological advancement since the composition of technologies to be developed varies depending upon the stage of economic development. Technology policy to improve the international competitiveness of domestic industries should be based on the stage of economic development and present technological status rather than on a simple comparison with advanced countries. At Korea's stage of development, maximizing the efficiency of R&D investment is more important than enlarging the size of the investment. Strategic alliances between domestic firms and foreign enterprises should be encouraged to save time and costs involved in acquiring new technologies and learning how to use them. The government should establish institutional devices to stimulate private enterprises to internationalize their business activities such as R&D, production, and marketing. The government should also promote the development of domestic and international R&D networks, which can serve as the infrastructure for technological innovations.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.135-157
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• 2004

As the speed of technological changes increase with the investment requirements steadily expanding, private firms and government-funded research institutes experience similar pressures with respect to the necessity of risk reduction and technological alliances in R&D activities. This paper first attempts to review previous research in managing R&D projects with large, risky, and long-term investment requirements. Our primary focus is placed on the "fuzzy front-end" (FFE) projects with uncertainties at the investigation and planning stages. We analyze various elements that create FFE conditions, classify them into basic constructs, and suggest tools and methods to deal with FFE conditions. The findings suggest that both initial FFE conditions and the effectiveness of FFE management affect the performance of the project later on, and thus, especially for large projects, we must deal with FFE seriously in a comprehensive manner. We utilize in-depth panel interviews and case studies to approach the research questions.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.139-150
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• 2017

In Korea, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an pivotal role in the national economy, accounting for 99.9% of all enterprises, 87.9% of total employment, and 48.3% of production. In spite of their crucial role in the national development, most of SMEs suffer from a lack of R&D related resources. Public R&D organizations such as government-funded research institutes can provide SMEs with valuable supplementary technological knowledge and help them build technological capacity. In this regard, this study estimated the effect of internal R&D investment and private-public R&D cooperation on technological innovation of ICT SMEs based on 2016 ETRI Survey. Building on previous literatures, the study established and tested a research model using binary logistic regression analysis. First, internal R&D investment and preferences for open innovation demonstrated the strengthening of R&D collaboration. Second, internal R&D investment and R&D cooperation showed a positive effect on both product and process innovation. Therefore, internal R&D capability and taking advantage of R&D collaboration are needed to achieve technological innovation for SMEs in ICT sector. This study also discuss implications for encouraging private-public R&D cooperation.