Success Catalyst or Hidden Impediment? How does the Time to Market Alter the Innovative Performance Effect of Technological Heterogeneity and Network Resource Asymmetry

Research and development (R&D) alliance is of great importance among various strategic alliances in high-tech industries, and it has become a vital strategy for many corporations to achieve competitive advantage in international business. This study aims to examine the links between network resource asymmetries and innovative performance from both economic and social dual perspectives and focusing on biopharmaceutical industries. We found that there are no significant linear or non-linear relationships between technological heterogeneity and innovative performance, while an inverse U-shaped relationship between network resource asymmetry and innovative performance was observed. Furthermore, time to market weakens the positive relationship between network resource asymmetry and innovative performance when the alliance was created by contract without financial investment and biotech-pharm (BP) partner type alliances. Overall, this study makes important theoretical and practical contributions to partner selection literature on R&D alliances in the biopharmaceutical industry.