Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
1006244 | Journal of Engineering and Technology Management | 2016 | 16 Pages |
We investigate how firms’ exploratory and exploitative invention can lead to breakthrough innovations, and how heterogeneous knowledge available to firms through their R&D alliance network moderates this relationship. Using panel data of U.S. biopharmaceutical firms, we find that emphasis on exploitative invention has a stronger positive effect on breakthrough innovation than does a firm's emphasis on exploratory invention. Furthermore, heterogeneous knowledge available in firms’ R&D alliance network increases the number of breakthrough innovations, up to a point, and then it begins to exert a negative effect. Interestingly, engaging alliance partners with heterogeneous knowledge strengthens the positive effect of exploitative invention on a firm's production of breakthrough innovations.