• 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.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.145-158
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• 2019

Purpose - Alliance members have constantly revised market strategies over time by withdrawing membership from a current alliance, joining another alliance, or constructing a new alliance. From the perspective of the signaling effect, the purpose of this study is to analyze the impacts of partner volatility (new member, old member, and new group) on firm value. Design/methodology - To analyze the impact of partner volatility on firm value, companies in strategic alliances are classified into the three groups of new partner, existing partner, and new alliance, and the effects on company value are verified through an event study and the signaling effect analysis. Findings - This study proved that new partners and newly formed strategic alliances have higher expectation effects than old partner company groups, and have a more positive effect on the relevant firms' stock prices. In addition, the result of the study showed the same valid results as the alliance levels, and showed that investors' expectations were higher with new partners and new alliances than with old partners. Research Implications - A new perspective on the signaling effects of strategic alliances among shipping lines was presented in this study by grouping alliance types including new member, old member, and new group. The results provide useful insights for selecting partners and firm values of alliance announcement times. Originality/value - This study analyzed partner volatility on relevant companies' stock prices from the perspective of investors from the global shipping conference reorganization in 2017. Strategic alliances were classified into the three categories of new partner, old partner, and new alliance, and the effects on firm value were verified.

• 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.

• Korean Business Review
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• v.13
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• pp.247-262
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• 2000

This study proposes a conceptual framework that can help to investigate strategic alliances. Based on the framework, this study identifies the factors that affect longevity of strategic alliances, highlighting the network structure in which a firm is embedded as an important variable, along with other environmental-level and firm-level variables such as environmental volatility, nationality, and previous experience with strategic alliances. In this study, the network structure of existing alliances in which a firm is embedded constitutes a form of social capital and is hypothesized to partially explain the longevity of a strategic alliance. In addition, the significance of other factors is appreciated.

• 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 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.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.135-147
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• 2019

Despite the importance of multinational service ventures' alliances with local firms for CSR engagement, research is little interested in this issue. Because many multinational service ventures have increasingly allied with local firms for their CSR performance, it is important to explain the role of the alliance between a multinational service venture and a local firm. Our study addressed an issue of multinational service ventures' CSR performance through alliances with local firms. Based prominently on the resource-based theory of the firm, the competence-based theory of the firm, and the resource-adavantage theory of competition, we attempted to predict how a multinational service venture can be successful in CSR engagement based on an alliance with a local firm. Our study posited that local firms' CSR knowledge and CSR orientation positively influence multinational service ventures's CSR capabilities. In addition, we posited the positive moderating roles of alliance competence in the relationships between local firms' CSR resources and multinational service ventures' CSR capability. Moreover, our study posited that multinational service ventures' CSR capability is a source of competitive advantage. Finally, we concluded this manuscript with a discussion of scholarly and managerial implications, limitations of the study, and directions for a further study.

• Korean Business Review
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• v.14
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• pp.45-62
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• 2001

This study examines the factors that affect longevity of strategic alliances, highlighting environmental volatility, nationality, and previous experience with strategic alliances. In general, successful strategic alliances are more likely to continue to exist than unsuccessful ones. Therefore, it is argued that studying on factors affecting the continuance of strategic alliances indirectly confirms the factors of success and failure in strategic alliances. In order to conduct this study, the needed data were collected from CATI(Cooperative Agreements and Technology Indicators) Data Base, which was gathered by a group of researchers in the University of Limburg in the Netherlands. Cox's Regression was used to analyze the data. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.75-92
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• 2021

There is increasing awareness in the international alliance literature that the firm performance effects of the alliance portfolio go beyond the effects of the individual alliances. I enrich this nascent perspective by developing a alliance portfolio composition framework based on the alliance portfolio dimensions - underpinned by the simultaneity of quantitative and qualitative factors in international portfolio - that enhances firms' financial performance. This paper assesses the impact on firm performance of composing the alliance dimension within a firm's international alliance portfolio. In an unbalanced panel data analysis with fixed effects of the performance of 502 firms operating in the Korean manufacturing industry during 2011-2017, I test whether firm's three dimension of international alliance portfolio affect on firm financial performance. I find that the intensity of international alliance have significantly positive effect on the firm performance. And following the moderating analysis of three portfolio dimension-functional, relational, and attribute, all of each three international alliance portfolio has positive moderating effects on the relationship between the alliance intensity and firm performance. These results indicate that firms should consider and form simultaneous approaches to exploit the international alliance based on the alliance portfolio dimensions with intensity of alliance portfolio.