Research Summary
Research Summary
Interfirm Alliances as Mechanisms to Access and Exploit Technological Capabilities
Description
How do firms choose alliance partners, and how do alliances affect the subsequent evolution of partners' technological capabilities? Silverman is examining how pre-alliance 'technological overlap' between firms influences partner selection. He is also examining patterns of knowledge transfer across alliance partners. Recent research involving large-scale empirical analysis explores 1) the degree to which firms seek partners whose technological capabilities complement or augment their own, 2) the degree to which different alliance structures and different types of pre-alliance technological overlap facilitate the 'deepening' of technological overlap and/or 'complementary specialization,' and 3) the effect of technological overlap on both the ability and incentives of partners to cooperate within an alliance. Much of this research is in collaboration with David C. Mowery (UC-Berkeley) and Joanne E. Oxley (University of Michigan).