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The Hidden Cost of R&D Alliances

By Professor Stefan Wagner University of Vienna ESMT Berlin Friday, February 7, 2025, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM Venue: Room 201 at Sasin School of Management or online via Zoom Register here to reserve your seat Abstract: How does firms’ participation in R&D alliances impact their subsequent innovation performance? Studying this question, most prior research argues for a positive, short-term effect (against the null of internal R&D) while explicitly or implicitly assuming that learning, knowledge acquisition, and co-creation are the main motives for firms to enter R&D alliances. In contrast to this view, we point out that in many instances, firms may form R&D alliances merely for knowledge access, allowing them to leverage knowledge complementarities with partners and realize synergistic efficiencies in R&D without the intention to learn. We contend that in the long run, firms’ reliance on alliances aimed at knowledge access and the associated reduced learning during R&D hinders their ability to innovate post alliances compared with conducting R&D internally. Tracing more than a decade of drug development histories of all firms in the Chinese pharmaceutical industry in the 1990s, we provide robust empirical support for our hypotheses.   For more information please contact +66-2218-4000 ext. 83893 or researchseminar@sasin.edu.