The impact of industry-university-research alliance portfolio diversity on firm innovation: Evidence from Chinese manufacturing firms

Abstract

Innovation is a key factor for the sustainable development of firms. Although it has been a prevalent phenomenon that firms maintain multiple industry-university-research (I-U-R) alliances simultaneously to generate innovation, there is a lack of explorations in this phenomenon in extant literature. In this study, we introduce a new construct, I-U-R alliance portfolio, and investigate the impact of its diversity on a focal firm's innovation performance. Hypotheses are proposed and examined using datasets of 176 listed firms in the Chinese manufacturing industry. We find that I-U-R alliance portfolio diversity exerts a positive effect on a focal firm's innovation performance and a firm's absorptive capacity positively moderates this relationship. Furthermore, we contend that with increasing levels of government financial support, the positive relationship between I-U-R alliance portfolio diversity and firm innovation performance is strengthened. Finally, our findings provide several theoretical and practical implications for the I-U-R alliance portfolio and firm innovation.