A Study On The Motivation And Performance Effects Of The Alliance Portfolio

With the trend of economic activities develop in networked way,the role of alliance is becoming more and more important in enterprises' survival and development.Nowadays,enterprises' competition is no longer single and static,but dynamic competition between the enterprise alliance portfolios.Since reform and opening up,enterprise alliance portfolios have become a new trend.Alliance portfolio provides more business opportunities and growth paths,and help to improve both the enterprise innovation performance and financial performance.Therefore,it is of important strategic significance for Chinese companies to build alliance portfolios with leading enterprises,especially those multinational companies,from who they can learn new technology and experience.However,due to the research angle of view limited in structuralism paradigm,existing literature cannot explain why the same alliance portfolio dimension characteristics influence on the performance differently.What's more,research about the formation and evolution of alliance portfolio is still in its infancy,lacking of in-depth investigation of the microscopic mechanism.Combing industry practice of alliance portfolio,related theory research needed to be expanded and deepened.Therefore,this research focuses on the formation mechanism and performance of alliance portfolio.First of all,introducing the network heterogeneity,alliance portfolio could be divided into structural dimension,the relationship dimensions and partner dimension;second,based on individual agency,analysis of enterprise performance aspiration's influence on different dimensions of alliance portfolio was conducted.Forth on,this research examined the impact of different dimension of alliance portfolio on performance,introducing environment as a moderator.Finally,the research used a longitude case study to unravel the dynamic evolution process of alliance portfolio and its effects on enterprise strategy performance.This research adopts post-structuralism paradigm,converging network embeddedness and agency theory to study the alliance portfolio formation and evolution.This paper is based on related literature and analysis,and tries to build alliance portfolio formation,performance,influence and dynamic evolution system of integrity research framework.In empirical analysis,focusing on how the enterprise build high performance alliance portfolio,using national tax database system 506 Zhejiang textile industry enterprises in 10 years of mutual trade relationship data,verified the theoretical model and research hypotheses,this research enlarged related empirical studies.Based on analysis and empirical test,this research generates the following conclusion:(1)Performance aspiration influence formation of alliance portfolio through alliance partner selection behavior.The empirical study finds that enterprise performance aspiration is the antecedent of alliance portfolio,performance aspiration influence formation of alliance portfolio through alliance partner selection behavior.Specifically,this paper analyzes the history and social performance aspiration's impact on the three dimension of alliance portfolio and finds that history and social performance aspiration have significant influence on structure dimension,the relationship dimension and partner dimension.(2)Environmental dynamism acts as a moderator in the relationship between alliance portfolio and performance.Introducing Environmental dynamism as a moderator,this paper finds it amplifies the influence of structure dimension,the relationship dimension and partner dimension on performance.(3)There is a co-evolution relationship between enterprise strategy,the environmental dynamism and alliance portfolio.Nested longitudinal case study found that in the changing environment,there is a cross-layer interaction between company strategic actions and relationship portfolio.Based on co-evolution model,this study also reveals the potential mechanism of the formation and evolution of the alliance portfolio.With the shift from exploratory strategy to exploitive strategy,alliance portfolio can be seen as a dynamic evolution mechanism from subjectivity to the process of embedding of continuous work.This research shows that there is a co-evolution relationship between enterprise strategy,the environmental dynamism and alliance portfolio.The study found that with the dynamic change of environment,the dynamic changes of enterprise alliance portfolio will affect the enterprise's strategic choice,at the mean time,the strategic choice of enterprises need the transformation of the configuration of the strategic alliance.The matching of enterprise strategic transformation and combination can continuously improve enterprise performance,and realize the balance of efficiency and efficiency.This research contributes in following aspects:(1)Takes network heterogeneity into consideration and emphasizes the importance of partner dimension besides structural dimension and relationship dimension of alliance portfolio,and unlocks the black box of alliance portfolio and refined the measurement.(2)Introduces post-structuralism and emphasizes agency.Based on prospect theory,constructs a model of aspiration-action-structure,clarifies the micro mechanism of formation of alliance portfolio.(3)Viewing from contingency theory,focused on the paradox of alliance portfolio performance,this research examined the moderating role of environmental dynamism.The study provides perfect suggestions for focal firms to build up their high-performance alliance portfolios and for the practice of the government.