Alliance portfolio diversity and its relations with multiple performance dimensions

Contains fulltext : 140382.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Previous research on the relation between Alliance Portfolio Diversity (APD) and organizational performance found ambiguous results and frequently only one performance dimension was researched. Additionally previous research differs on researched sectors and researched time frames. This heterogeneity limits the possibility to integrate the previous research results and hence does not provide an overview of the relations between APD and multiple performance dimensions, which in turn limits the possibility for managers to manage their alliance portfolio based on APD. In this research,the relation between APD and three important performance dimensions—financial,radical innovative and incremental innovative performance is simultaneously analyzed on the basis of the data of 480 organizations of the ego-centric networks. For financial performance a negative relation was found, while for radical innovative performance an inverted U shaped relation was revealed. A positive with diminishing return relation was found for incremental innovative performance. These results suggest that managers should be aware of possible negative effects of APD, and that depending on desired outcomes different levels of APD are the most beneficial.8 p