IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/mgtdec/v44y2023i7p3814-3826.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Geographic proximity to socially dominant partners and firms' innovation outcomes: Empirical evidence from the medical device industry

Author

Listed:
  • Kiwon Park
  • Hyundo Choi

Abstract

Socially dominant partners offer key innovation resources as actors with socially legitimate power, and firms can utilise the geographic proximity to such partners to increase partnership benefits. We examine the impact of geographic proximity to socially dominant partners on firms' innovation outcomes when firms collaborate with partners under varying partnership conditions (i.e., partners' capabilities, partner portfolio size and the presence of local intermediaries) using the Korean implantable medical device industry as a case study. The study found that firms' innovation outcomes increase when teaming up with nearby socially dominant partners if firms collaborate with strongly capable partners and many of them. In contrast, if firms collaborate with less‐capable partners and only a few of them, firms' innovation outcomes increase when partnering with distant socially dominant partners. Moreover, such outcomes also increase when they collaborate with distant socially dominant partners and intermediaries are present in the firms' regions. The study offers theoretical contributions to the extant literature on power imbalance and economic geography regarding inter‐organisational relations.

Suggested Citation

  • Kiwon Park & Hyundo Choi, 2023. "Geographic proximity to socially dominant partners and firms' innovation outcomes: Empirical evidence from the medical device industry," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(7), pages 3814-3826, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:mgtdec:v:44:y:2023:i:7:p:3814-3826
    DOI: 10.1002/mde.3921
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.3921
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/mde.3921?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Hitt & M. Tina Dacin & Edward Levitas & Jean-Luc Arregle & Anca Borza, 2000. "Partner Selection in Emerging and Developed Market Contexts : Resource-Based and Organizational Learning Perspectives," Post-Print hal-02276706, HAL.
    2. Howells, Jeremy, 2006. "Intermediation and the role of intermediaries in innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 715-728, June.
    3. Antonio Messeni Petruzzelli & Gianluca Murgia, 2020. "University–Industry collaborations and international knowledge spillovers: a joint-patent investigation," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 45(4), pages 958-983, August.
    4. Lucia Parrino, 2015. "Coworking: assessing the role of proximity in knowledge exchange," Knowledge Management Research & Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3), pages 261-271, August.
    5. Jeffrey J. Reuer & Nandini Lahiri, 2014. "Searching for Alliance Partners: Effects of Geographic Distance on the Formation of R&D Collaborations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(1), pages 283-298, February.
    6. Mila Davids & Koen Frenken, 2018. "Proximity, knowledge base and the innovation process: towards an integrated framework," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(1), pages 23-34, January.
    7. Pham, Hanh Song Thi & Petersen, Bent, 2021. "The bargaining power, value capture, and export performance of Vietnamese manufacturers in global value chains," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(6).
    8. Ulrich Wassmer, 2010. "Alliance Portfolios : A Review and Research Agenda," Post-Print hal-02313048, HAL.
    9. Victor Cui & Haibin Yang & Ilan Vertinsky, 2018. "Attacking your partners: Strategic alliances and competition between partners in product markets," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(12), pages 3116-3139, December.
    10. Richard L. Daft & Robert H. Lengel, 1986. "Organizational Information Requirements, Media Richness and Structural Design," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(5), pages 554-571, May.
    11. Liu, Yang & Deng, Ping & Wei, Jiang & Ying, Ying & Wu, Bing, 2021. "How to gain from international R&D alliances? A mutual dependence logic," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 800-815.
    12. Wesley D. Sine & Robert J. David & Hitoshi Mitsuhashi, 2007. "From Plan to Plant: Effects of Certification on Operational Start-up in the Emergent Independent Power Sector," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(4), pages 578-594, August.
    13. Michael Hitt & M. Tina Dacin & Edward Levitas & Jean-Luc Arregle & Anca Borza, 2000. "Partner Selection in Emerging and Developed Market Contexts : Resource-Based and Organizational Learning Perspectives," Post-Print hal-02312691, HAL.
    14. Thune, Taran & Mina, Andrea, 2016. "Hospitals as innovators in the health-care system: A literature review and research agenda," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(8), pages 1545-1557.
    15. Hao, Bin & Feng, Yanan, 2018. "Leveraging learning forces in asymmetric alliances: Small firms’ perceived power imbalance in driving exploration and exploitation," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 27-39.
    16. Hyundo Choi & Sangook Park & Jeong-dong Lee, 2011. "Government-driven knowledge networks as precursors to emerging sectors: a case of the hydrogen energy sector in Korea," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 20(3), pages 751-787, June.
    17. Navid Asgari & Vivek Tandon & Kulwant Singh & Will Mitchell, 2018. "Creating and taming discord: How firms manage embedded competition in alliance portfolios to limit alliance termination," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(12), pages 3273-3299, December.
    18. J. Myles Shaver & Fredrick Flyer, 2000. "Agglomeration economies, firm heterogeneity, and foreign direct investment in the United States," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(12), pages 1175-1193, December.
    19. Tindara Abbate & Raffaella Coppolino & Francesco Schiavone, 2013. "Linking Entities in Knowledge Transfer: The Innovation Intermediaries," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 4(3), pages 233-243, September.
    20. Wonsang Ryu & Thomas H. Brush & Joonhyung Bae, 2023. "How agglomeration affects alliance governance and innovation performance: The role of cluster size," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(1), pages 297-310, January.
    21. Christian Catalini, 2018. "Microgeography and the Direction of Inventive Activity," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(9), pages 4348-4364, September.
    22. Shixiang Wang & Minyuan Zhao, 2018. "A tale of two distances: a study of technological distance, geographic distance and multilocation firms," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(5), pages 1091-1120.
    23. Ron Boschma, 2005. "Proximity and Innovation: A Critical Assessment," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(1), pages 61-74.
    24. Jason Owen-Smith & Walter W. Powell, 2004. "Knowledge Networks as Channels and Conduits: The Effects of Spillovers in the Boston Biotechnology Community," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(1), pages 5-21, February.
    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. Wonsang Ryu & Thomas H. Brush & Joonhyung Bae, 2023. "How agglomeration affects alliance governance and innovation performance: The role of cluster size," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(1), pages 297-310, January.
    2. Yadong Luo & Huan Zhang & Juan Bu, 2019. "Developed country MNEs investing in developing economies: Progress and prospect," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(4), pages 633-667, June.
    3. Ferretti, Marco & Guerini, Massimiliano & Panetti, Eva & Parmentola, Adele, 2022. "The partner next door? The effect of micro-geographical proximity on intra-cluster inter-organizational relationships," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    4. Markus Grillitsch & Magnus Nilsson, 2019. "Knowledge externalities and firm heterogeneity: Effects on high and low growth firms," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 98(1), pages 93-114, February.
    5. Choi, Sukwoong & Kim, Wonjoon & Kim, Namil, 2022. "International alliance formations: The role of brokerage in technology competition networks," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 440-449.
    6. Harald Bathelt & John A Cantwell & Ram Mudambi, 2018. "Overcoming frictions in transnational knowledge flows: challenges of connecting, sense-making and integrating," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(5), pages 1001-1022.
    7. Grashof, Nils, 2020. "Putting the watering can away Towards a targeted (problem-oriented) cluster policy framework," Papers in Innovation Studies 2020/4, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    8. Xiaohui Yuan & Jiayan Yan, 2022. "Reverse Efficiency Spillovers from Host Country Banks to Foreign Banks: Evidence from Emerging Market Bank Subsidiaries in Developed Markets," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 62(6), pages 915-946, December.
    9. Golonka, Monika, 2015. "Proactive cooperation with strangers: Enhancing complexity of the ICT firms' alliance portfolio and their innovativeness," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 168-178.
    10. Victor Cui & Rajneesh Narula & Dana Minbaeva & Ilan Vertinsky, 2022. "Towards integrating country- and firm-level perspectives on intellectual property rights," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(9), pages 1880-1894, December.
    11. Carbonara , Nunzia & Tavassoli, Sam, 2013. "The Role of Knowledge Heterogeneity on the Innovative Capability of Industrial Districts," Papers in Innovation Studies 2013/35, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    12. Zhao, Hongxin & Lu, Jiangyong, 2016. "Contingent value of political capital in bank loan acquisition: Evidence from founder-controlled private enterprises in China," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 153-174.
    13. Chollet, Barthélemy & Revet, Karine, 2023. "Digging deep or scratching the surface? Contingent innovation outcomes of seeking advice from geographically distant ties," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    14. Nancy Haskell & Sophie Veilleux & Donald Béliveau, 2016. "Functional and contextual dimensions of INVs’ alliance partner selection," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 483-512, December.
    15. van der Wouden, Frank & Youn, Hyejin, 2023. "The impact of geographical distance on learning through collaboration," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(2).
    16. Piening, Erk P. & Salge, Torsten Oliver & Schäfer, Sebastian, 2016. "Innovating across boundaries: A portfolio perspective on innovation partnerships of multinational corporations," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 474-485.
    17. Coombs, Joseph E. & Mudambi, Ram & Deeds, David L., 2006. "An examination of the investments in U.S. biotechnology firms by foreign and domestic corporate partners," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 405-428, July.
    18. Zhang, Jiamin & Gu, Qian, 2021. "Turning a curse into a blessing: Contingent effects of geographic distance on startup–VC partnership performance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(4).
    19. Nils Grashof, 2020. "Firm‐specific cluster effects: A meta‐analysis," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(5), pages 1237-1260, October.
    20. Guido Pialli, 2023. "The effects of limited exhaustibility of knowledge and geographical distance on the quality of R&D collaborations: The European evidence 2000–2012," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 1125-1169, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:wly:mgtdec:v:44:y:2023:i:7:p:3814-3826. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/7976 .

    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.