Contract research and high-tech alliances: Vistas for future studies

This research note addresses the governance structure of innovation processes in high-tech alliances, focusing on the content and role of formal contracts. Contract research is strongly heterogeneous, that is, many different paradigms, concepts, definitions and measures exist. We discuss the most important aspects of contract research and primarily argue that future research needs to pay ampte attention to the interpretation of contracts, as the written contract might be just a standard form written by lawyers who are not directty involved in the high-tech alliance. We also propose a wide view of contracts and emphasize that contracts might have different functions depending on the role that the contract ptays in the retationship. ln so doing, we review the most common research methods, i.e., surveys, meta-studies and tongitudinal case studies, and suggest that the latter offer the most promissory opportunities for future alliance contract studies