How do the comparative firm-specific portfolios of partners influence alliance strategies? We hypothesized a governance model by applying the literature of competitive dynamics and resource-based view in the context of alliances partners competing in the same technology-intensive industry. Two competing hypotheses of resource similarity versus resource complementarity as the governance driver of equity-based mode are developed and tested on a sample of 4,832 semiconductor alliances formed by 25 industry leaders during 1985 and 2010. The test results of logit regressions support the direct or contingent governance effects of ten multidimensional determinants. By comparison, our findings demonstrate that resource complementarity is the stronger governance driver than resource similarity, as well as the governance effects of power and knowledge dimensions stronger than culture and experience dimensions. To further investigate the learning dynamics between partners, we further analyzed and tested the four subsamples of leader-learning, leader-teaching, co-exploiting, and co-exploring. Our findings, that none of determinants sustains its governance effect in all subsamples, imply that portfolio-specific learning orientations between alliance partners affect the choice of governance mode of industry leaders.
