A co-opetition perspective of technology alliance governance modes

Many firms undertake alliances as a tactic in their competitive strategy to gain technological benefits from their competitors. Little is known, however, about how simultaneous competition and cooperation between rivals (i.e. co-opetition) influence the alliance governance modes. To bridge this deficit, we integrated a variety of different theoretical perspectives into the concept of co-opetition. Based on the dynamic nature of co-opetitive relationships, we also consider the moderating effect of external technological turbulence on the choice of technology alliances. We tested our hypotheses on a sample of 405 international technology alliances in different industries. It was found that the inter-firm co-opetitive relationship results in alliance member preference to choose contractual agreements as the governance mode in new alliances. However, when external technological turbulence increases, firms tend to tighten alliance governance (i.e. through equity joint ventures) in response to the turbulence.