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The effect of board human capital on the performance of technical alliance investments
Author(s) -
Chen LiYu,
Lai JungHo
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
randd management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.253
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1467-9310
pISSN - 0033-6807
DOI - 10.1111/radm.12209
Subject(s) - alliance , business , marketing , accounting , function (biology) , human capital , value (mathematics) , empirical research , strategic alliance , industrial organization , economics , philosophy , epistemology , evolutionary biology , machine learning , political science , computer science , law , biology , economic growth
Despite boards of directors’ prominent involvement in strategic alliance (SA) decisions in practice and reports from news media, there is relatively little academic research exploring the board's value for a firm's technical SA investments involving a technical transfer or R&D, which are characterized by a high level of uncertainty, information asymmetry, and extreme complexity. Anchored in the resource dependence theory, this study aims to address this important issue by examining how board of directors contribute their human capital, in the form of relevant strategic experience, may mitigate the core challenges managers face when pursuing technical SAs and thereby influencing their outcomes. Our empirical results show that when outside directors hold more extensive alliance experience, they can better execute their consulting function and improve the firm's technical alliance performance. In addition, directors with experience specifically related to technical alliances also have a positive effect on performance. Last, we find that the impact of alliance experience on technical alliance performance is positively moderated by the size of directors’ prior affiliated companies and their share ownership in the focal firm.