The role of alliance portfolio diversity on firm innovation and performance: the case of Colombia

ABSTRACT

This research aimed to understand the direct influence of a firm's alliance portfolio diversity on its product and process innovation performance and the indirect influence of the former on financial performance, mediated by innovation performance. To reach this goal, we proposed a model based on alliance portfolios and absorptive capacity theories and tested it in a sample of 806 Colombian manufacturing firms with structural equation modeling. The results supported the hypothesis that alliance portfolio diversity has a direct influence on product and process innovation and an indirect impact on financial performance. Product innovation, as expected, mediated this indirect relationship. On the other hand, process innovation did not. Another interesting finding was that, for high levels of absorptive capacity, the positive influence of diversity on innovation performance was more intense. This study contributes by extending the research of alliance portfolios in the innovation management field by understanding their phenomena under an emerging economy context.

KEYWORDS:

• Alliance portfolio diversity
• innovation performance
• absorptive capacity
• Colombia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, Brazil) [Grant Number 305706/2015-2,406559/2018-0]; FAPERJ (Foundation for Research Support of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) [Grant Number 26/210.277/2019(248665), E-26/201.409/2021(260810),E-26/202.864/2018 (239233)].