IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/intemj/v16y2020i3d10.1007_s11365-019-00597-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The link between SMEs alliance portfolio diversity and top management’s entrepreneurial and alliance orientations

Author

Listed:
  • Mert Tokman

    (James Madison University)

  • Fariss Terry Mousa

    (James Madison University)

  • Pat Dickson

    (Wake Forest University)

Abstract

To be able to survive and grow in twenty-first century global network economies, small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) strive to develop various types of interfirm alliances that provide them with bundles of resources and network security. Therefore, creating and configuring a beneficial and diverse alliance portfolio has become an important strategic issue for SMEs. The purpose of this article is to investigate how the entrepreneurial orientation and alliance orientation of the SMEs’ top managements lead to functional diversity of alliance portfolio configurations. Based on resource dependency and upper echelons theories, this study develops a model using survey data from 230 managers of Australian SMEs. The results suggest a significant link between the SME top management’s strategic orientations and the diversity of their alliance portfolios. When both entrepreneurial orientation and alliance orientation are high, the firms prefer to form portfolios that are functionally diverse. On the other hand, when either one or both strategic orientations are low, firms prefer to form portfolios that specialize on one of the functional areas like operations, logistics, marketing, or strategic management.

Suggested Citation

  • Mert Tokman & Fariss Terry Mousa & Pat Dickson, 2020. "The link between SMEs alliance portfolio diversity and top management’s entrepreneurial and alliance orientations," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 1001-1022, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:intemj:v:16:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s11365-019-00597-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s11365-019-00597-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11365-019-00597-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11365-019-00597-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ranjay Gulati, 1999. "Network location and learning: the influence of network resources and firm capabilities on alliance formation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(5), pages 397-420, May.
    2. Reshma H. Shah & Vanitha Swaminathan, 2008. "Factors influencing partner selection in strategic alliances: the moderating role of alliance context," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 471-494, May.
    3. Dickson, Pat H. & Weaver, K. Mark & Hoy, Frank, 2006. "Opportunism in the R&D alliances of SMES: The roles of the institutional environment and SME size," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 487-513, July.
    4. Tim Rowley & Dean Behrens & David Krackhardt, 2000. "Redundant governance structures: an analysis of structural and relational embeddedness in the steel and semiconductor industries," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 369-386, March.
    5. Andreas Rauch & Johan Wiklund & G.T. Lumpkin & Michael Frese, 2009. "Entrepreneurial Orientation and Business Performance: An Assessment of past Research and Suggestions for the Future," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 33(3), pages 761-787, May.
    6. Danny Miller & Peter H. Friesen, 1978. "Archetypes of Strategy Formulation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(9), pages 921-933, May.
    7. Joel A. C. Baum & Tony Calabrese & Brian S. Silverman, 2000. "Don't go it alone: alliance network composition and startups' performance in Canadian biotechnology," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 267-294, March.
    8. Weijan Shan & Gordon Walker & Bruce Kogut, 1994. "Interfirm cooperation and startup innovation in the biotechnology industry," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(5), pages 387-394, June.
    9. Mouri, Nacef & Sarkar, M.B. & Frye, Melissa, 2012. "Alliance portfolios and shareholder value in post-IPO firms: The moderating roles of portfolio structure and firm-level uncertainty," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 355-371.
    10. Ignacio Castro & José L. Galán & Cristóbal Casanueva, 2016. "Management of alliance portfolios and the role of the board of directors," Journal of Business Economics and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(2), pages 215-233, April.
    11. Danny Miller, 1983. "The Correlates of Entrepreneurship in Three Types of Firms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(7), pages 770-791, July.
    12. Olivier Basso & Alain Fayolle & Véronique Bouchard, 2009. "Entrepreneurial orientation : the making of a concept," Post-Print hal-02312490, HAL.
    13. Seung Ho Park & Michael V. Russo, 1996. "When Competition Eclipses Cooperation: An Event History Analysis of Joint Venture Failure," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(6), pages 875-890, June.
    14. MB Sarkar & Preet S. Aulakh & Anoop Madhok, 2009. "Process Capabilities and Value Generation in Alliance Portfolios," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(3), pages 583-600, June.
    15. Ulrich Wassmer, 2010. "Alliance Portfolios : A Review and Research Agenda," Post-Print hal-02313048, HAL.
    16. Sorin Gabriel Anton, 2019. "Leverage and firm growth: an empirical investigation of gazelles from emerging Europe," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 209-232, March.
    17. Louis Marino & Karen Strandholm & H. Kevin Steensma & K. Mark Weaver, 2002. "The Moderating Effect of National Culture on the Relationship between Entrepreneurial Orientation and Strategic Alliance Portfolio Extensiveness," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 26(4), pages 145-160, July.
    18. William Wales & Erik Monsen & Alexander McKelvie, 2011. "The Organizational Pervasiveness of Entrepreneurial Orientation," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 35(5), pages 895-923, September.
    19. Arash Rezazadeh & Niloofar Nobari, 2018. "Antecedents and consequences of cooperative entrepreneurship: a conceptual model and empirical investigation," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 479-507, June.
    20. Jeffrey G. Covin & Dennis P. Slevin, 1989. "Strategic management of small firms in hostile and benign environments," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(1), pages 75-87, January.
    21. J Michael Geringer, 1991. "Strategic Determinants of Partner Selection Criteria in International Joint Ventures," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 22(1), pages 41-62, March.
    22. Jeffrey G. Covin & Dennis P. Slevin, 1991. "A Conceptual Model of Entrepreneurship as Firm Behavior," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 16(1), pages 7-26, October.
    23. Ramachandran, K. & Ramnarayan, S., 1993. "Entrepreneurial orientation and networking: Some Indian evidence," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 8(6), pages 513-524, November.
    24. Wafa N. Almobaireek & Ahmed A. Alshumaimeri & Tatiana S. Manolova, 2016. "Building entrepreneurial inter-firm networks in an emerging economy: the role of cognitive legitimacy," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 87-114, March.
    25. Paul Chiambaretto & Anne-Sophie Fernandez, 2016. "The evolution of coopetitive and collaborative alliances in an alliance portfolio: The Air France case," Post-Print hal-02010661, HAL.
    26. Chatterjee, Patrali, 2004. "Interfirm alliances in online retailing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(7), pages 714-723, July.
    27. Ruihua Joy Jiang & Qingjiu Tom Tao & Michael D. Santoro, 2010. "Alliance portfolio diversity and firm performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(10), pages 1136-1144, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Casanueva, Cristóbal & Gallego, Ángeles & Castro, Ignacio & Sancho, María, 2014. "Airline alliances: Mobilizing network resources," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 88-98.
    2. Castro, Ignacio & Casanueva, Cristóbal & Galán, José Luis, 2014. "Dynamic evolution of alliance portfolios," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 423-433.
    3. Kollmann, Tobias & Stöckmann, Christoph & Niemand, Thomas & Hensellek, Simon & de Cruppe, Katharina, 2021. "A configurational approach to entrepreneurial orientation and cooperation explaining product/service innovation in digital vs. non-digital startups," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 508-519.
    4. de Leeuw, Tim & Lokshin, Boris & Duysters, Geert, 2014. "Returns to alliance portfolio diversity: The relative effects of partner diversity on firm's innovative performance and productivity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(9), pages 1839-1849.
    5. Wadhwa, Anu & Phelps, Corey & Kotha, Suresh, 2016. "Corporate venture capital portfolios and firm innovation," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 95-112.
    6. Casanueva, Cristóbal & Gallego, Ángeles & Sancho, María, 2013. "Network resources and social capital in airline alliance portfolios," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 441-453.
    7. Park, Gunno & Kim, Marco JinHwan & Kang, Jina, 2015. "Competitive embeddedness: The impact of competitive relations among a firm's current alliance partners on its new alliance formations," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 196-208.
    8. Pittino, Daniel & Visintin, Francesca & Lauto, Giancarlo, 2017. "A configurational analysis of the antecedents of entrepreneurial orientation," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 224-237.
    9. Gabriel Linton, 2019. "Innovativeness, risk-taking, and proactiveness in startups: a case study and conceptual development," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 9(1), pages 1-21, December.
    10. Wales, William J. & Kraus, Sascha & Filser, Matthias & Stöckmann, Christoph & Covin, Jeffrey G., 2021. "The status quo of research on entrepreneurial orientation: Conversational landmarks and theoretical scaffolding," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 564-577.
    11. Cobeña, Mar & Gallego, Ángeles & Casanueva, Cristóbal, 2017. "Heterogeneity, diversity and complementarity in alliance portfolios," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 464-476.
    12. Dennis P. Slevin & Siri A. Terjesen, 2011. "Entrepreneurial Orientation: Reviewing Three Papers and Implications for Further Theoretical and Methodological Development," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 35(5), pages 973-987, September.
    13. Wei Han & Feng-Wen Chen & Yu Deng, 2018. "Alliance Portfolio Management and Sustainability of Entrepreneurial Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-22, October.
    14. Carina Lomberg & Diemo Urbig & Christoph Stöckmann & Louis D. Marino & Pat H. Dickson, 2017. "Entrepreneurial Orientation: The Dimensions’ Shared Effects in Explaining Firm Performance," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 41(6), pages 973-998, November.
    15. Vishal K. Gupta & William J. Wales, 2017. "Assessing Organisational Performance Within Entrepreneurial Orientation Research: Where Have We Been and Where Can We Go from Here?," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 26(1), pages 51-76, March.
    16. Erik Lundmark & Anna Krzeminska & Dean A. Shepherd, 2019. "Images of Entrepreneurship: Exploring Root Metaphors and Expanding Upon Them," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(1), pages 138-170, January.
    17. Felipe Hernández-Perlines & Manuel Alejandro Ibarra Cisneros, 2018. "The Role of Environment in Sustainable Entrepreneurial Orientation. The Case of Family Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-16, June.
    18. Engelen, Andreas, 2010. "Entrepreneurial orientation as a function of national cultural variations in two countries," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 354-368, December.
    19. Vishal Gupta & Sandra C. Mortal & Tina Yang, 2018. "Entrepreneurial orientation and firm value: Does managerial discretion play a role?," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-26, January.
    20. Jeffrey E. Stambaugh & John Martinez & G. T. Lumpkin & Niyati Kataria, 0. "How well do EO measures and entrepreneurial behavior match?," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-21.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:intemj:v:16:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s11365-019-00597-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.