Chapter 8: Innovation and New Partner Selection: Theory and Exploratory Evidence from the Information and Communications Technology Sector in the Netherlands

This study analyzes whether a firm’s innovative nature affects its selection of a new alliance partner. The selection of an appropriate partner is a crucially important first step in the design of a successful strategic alliance. We argue that innovative firms focus on particular criteria in the selection of new partners—namely, complementarity of resources, absorptive capacity, innovative capabilities, and willingness to share expertise. Data to empirically analyze the research hypotheses were collected from a survey of 51 Dutch firms operating in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector. We control for characteristics of the focal organization, the alliance, and the entrepreneur. The exploratory results provide support for our key proposition.