How do location and knowledge factors interactively impact the alliance strategies between international partners? To approach such an inquiry, this paper blends the perspectives of knowledge-based view (KBV) and transaction-costs economics (TCE) in a hypothesized governance model. Theoretically, we develop a governance driver, incentives-to-teach of knowledge owners, and then incorporate it in a hypothesized model explaining why international partners to choose equity-based or contractual mode governing their alliance. Empirically, seven hypotheses are devised and then tested by a sample of 7,030 international alliances participated by at least a partner from China and South Korea. This sample is intentionally selected to further demonstrate the strategic importance of location asymmetry and knowledge asymmetry, two key constructs derived from our theoretical elaboration of incentives-to-teach. Our test results support three governance determinants toward equity-based mode, including co-emerging partners from the dimension of partner-location-symmetry, foreign diversification from the dimension of partner-location-asymmetry, and emerging learning alliances from the dimension of alliance-knowledge-asymmetry. We also found three boundary conditions of knowledge determinants, whose governance effect on equity-based mode becomes more significant for the international alliances located in the host country of an emerging partner, consisting of noncompeting partners, and formed in the more recent period than their counter-alliances.
關聯:
2010 Annual Meetings of Academy of International Business (AIB)
