In the context of radical innovation, we draw from knowledge network theory to investigate how the firm can manage its alliance portfolio to speed up radical innovation that relies predominantly on scientific knowledge. Specifically, we examine how the firm's innovation alliance network composition and its position in the network affect radical innovation speed. In analyzing empirical data on COVID-19-related radical innovation projects, we find that the presence of an industry partner reduces radical innovation speed, while the presence of a research partner increases it. The presence of government partners does not influence innovation speed unless the firm has a high level of collaboration experience with the partners. As for the firm's alliance network position, a more centrally located firm experiences faster radical innovation speed. However, we find that an industry partner's presence in the project's network attenuates the positive effect of network centrality on radical innovation speed. This study contributes to the literature by linking knowledge network theory and innovation speed to identify the individual and joint effects of the firm's innovation alliance composition and its position in the network. Implications regarding accelerating radical innovation and coordinating among firms, research labs, universities, and government partners are provided.

In the context of new product development (NPD), we draw from the extended resource-based view of the firm (RBV) to investigate how firms can deploy resources from prior innovation network and current strategic alliance to respond to new market opportunity by developing a new product under extreme time pressure. Specifically, we examine the effects of firm’s centrality in its previous innovation alliance network and different types of partner in current innovation alliance on NPD lead time. In analyzing empirical data on COVID-19-related NPD projects, we find that a firm with greater network centrality sees shorter lead time for the current NPD project. Collaborating with industry partners on the current NPD project prolongs lead time, while collaborating with research partners shortens it. The effect of collaborating with government partners, meanwhile, is contingent on the firm’s collaboration experience with its current partners. Finally, we find that the negative/reducing effect of network centrality on NPD lead time is weaker if the firm collaborates with industry partners for the current project. This study contributes to the literature by linking RBV and NPD lead time by identifying the individual and joint effects of resource access from past innovation alliance network and from current collaborators. Implications regarding accelerating NPD and coordinating among firms, researchers, scientists, and politicians are provided.

ABSTRACTIn this article, we introduce a game‐theoretic model to examine the impact of outsourcing knowledge, as well as firm‐ and market‐level factors, on a buyer's decision of whether to employ a supply chain intermediary or an agent to identify a manufacturer for her new product. The buyer faces two options: identify the manufacturer directly or explore outsourcing indirectly through an agent. In the case of direct outsourcing, the buyer evaluates, negotiates with, and identifies the manufacturers in‐house, whereas, under indirect outsourcing, the agent takes over these activities in exchange for a commission based on the transaction value between the buyer and the manufacturer. The model introduced in this article captures the buyer–agent incentive misalignment. Unexpectedly, we find that although attractiveness of indirect outsourcing increases as the buyer's outsourcing knowledge increases, it follows an inverse‐U shape as the agent gains more outsourcing knowledge. We further demonstrate that the observability of the buyer's outsourcing knowledge is another key driver of the outsourcing‐mode strategy. In addition, we show that the buyer's tendency to explore indirect outsourcing is greater if the sensitivity to the retail price or the commission rate is higher, or the base demand or cost of delayed time‐to‐market associated with the new product is lower. We extend our analysis to consider a contract form, whereby the agent's commission payment is driven by the expected savings generated for the buyer, and to consider the setting in which the buyer's outsourcing knowledge is private information.

In this study, we compare the direct outsourcing strategy with the indirect outsourcing strategy, whereby intermediaries are employed to carry out activities related to sourcing from suppliers. Specifically, we develop a theoretical framework and a set of propositions that focus on the impact of outsourcing knowledge, coordination capability, and organizational complexity on a firm's strategy regarding the employment of an intermediary during the determination of a manufacturer for its new product. Although direct outsourcing can provide some advantages over traditional indirect outsourcing, it is characterized by high levels of organizational complexity and may introduce new sources of supply risk. We discuss situations in which the direct outsourcing of new products can be advantageous as well as risk mitigating.