Value-adding contributions of firm internal and external collaboration in new product development
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Shulman, Arthur
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Abstract
The existing literature has provided a detailed examination of the nature of inter-firm collaboration. With this, recent researchers have suggested that external collaborative relationships between firms influence the collaborative environment within the firm and vis-୶is. However, most studies have, with a few exceptions, not gone further than calling for a similar alignment between firm internal and external collaboration. This study attempts to fill this gap by systematically examining the value-adding contributions of key internal collaborative activities and key external collaborative activities during a new product development among 168 dual partner strategic alliances. We explore firm collaboration as a configuration of five structural and relational attributes that capture differently intensive collaborative activities within and across firms. We find that engaging in similar internal and external collaborative activities and trying to maximise the intensity of each is not the best-performing combination. Instead, the nature of collaboration among functional units within a focal firm is different to that between the focal and partnering firm with each adding a non-overlapping value to product development performance. This study enriches alliance and innovation research, especially regarding theorizing and validating the value-adding nature of firm internal and external collaboration.