| This study posited knowledge-building alliance strategies as a function of the national institutional environment characterizing the firm's location of innovation. Hypotheses were grounded in two dimensions of institutional theory---the location of authority in a strong state apparatus or statism, and organization of society along communitarian principles or corporatism.; Based on their utility in explaining both innovation and collaboration, these institutional dimensions were conceptualized as influencing firms' knowledge-building alliance strategies directly, and by interacting with firm-, dyad- and network-level characteristics such as size, technological achievement, technological distance and social capital.; Results showed that corporatism did not contribute to significantly more alliances, though a positive and significant relationship was observed in estimating alliances with research institutions. Similarly, statism was found to be associated with increased alliances with foreign actors. Large, technologically accomplished firms engaged in more alliances across polities, however, smaller, less technologically accomplished firms engaged in greater number of alliances in corporatist polities than associational polities. Technological distance between partners reduced the odds of alliance formation; this relationship, however, was stronger in societal polities than statist polities. Alliances served as a significant mechanism for knowledge spillovers across both polity types. Even though alliance counts did not vary according to the degree of corporatism, the motivation to build on both direct and indirect partners' knowledge did. Firms in associational polities built on their partners' knowledge more successfully than firms from corporatist polities; however, the proportion of knowledge acquired from foreign partners was lower in statist polities. The social capital generated from strong brokerage positions spanned by the firms was associated with greater knowledge spillovers from partners in societal polities compared to statist polities.; This study makes three contributions. First, it demonstrates the salience of the institutional environment characterizing the location of innovation in explaining firms' strategies for innovation and collaboration. Second, it specifies the institutional characteristics that interact with a firm's resource base to motivate alliance formation and knowledge acquisition from partners. Third, it provides evidence of variations in the effectiveness of knowledge building alliance strategies as a function of the institutional environment within which innovation occurs. |
