Complementarity in alliance portfolios and firm innovation

This paper assesses the impact on firm innovation of combining alliance-specific and partner-specific attributes within a firm's alliance portfolio. In a panel data analysis of the innovation performance of 119 firms operating in the pharmaceutical industry during 1985-2007, we test whether firm's alliance portfolio displays complementarities across four dimensions. The results suggest that specific combinations of attributes may diminish innovation by decreasing the efficiency of diversity management or by generating redundancies. On the other hand, other alliance portfolio practices are mutually reinforcing and thus foster innovation.