http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/14210/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38043/ 2012-11-28T00:00:00Z With external innovation becoming more and more important, many firms struggle with the question of how to balance their technology-sourcing portfolio. This study addresses this issue by looking at the effects of portfolio diversity on performance outcomes and the conditions under which diversity is most likely to materialize. Using a dataset of strategic investments by pharmaceutical firms, the results show that the variance in relative technological proximity between the focal firm and its partners exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship with innovative performance and that this relationship is affected by the diversity of the external sourcing modes used in the portfolio. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/32847/ 2012-06-07T00:00:00Z This article investigates how prior corporate venture capital (CVC) relationships between two firms affect the likelihood of their subsequently entering a strategic alliance. Creating a portfolio of CVC investments provides the investing firm with a set of opportunities that can be pursued once the technological and market uncertainty have been reduced. If the technology appears to be promising, a follow-on investment, such as a strategic alliance, is made to ensure the transfer of the technological knowledge. This article shows that prior CVC investments can play a role in the formation of strategic alliances and investigates the conditions under which they are most likely to do so. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/31343/ 2011-08-01T00:00:00Z Innovating firms often invest in a number of different technology projects, in different stages of development, using a wide range of distinct technology sourcing modes, such as strategic alliances, joint ventures, and mergers and acquisitions. Recently, firms have also gained an increasing awareness of the potential benefits of corporate venture capital investments. This paper investigates the particular role of corporate venture capital investments in the technology sourcing portfolio of firms. More specifically, we focus on the extent to which corporate venture capital investments are additive or complementary to other modes of technology sourcing when explaining the innovative performance of firms. The results indicate that corporate venture capital investments are particularly beneficial for the innovative performance of firms when they are used in combination with other technology sourcing modes. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/19232/ 2009-07-01T00:00:00Z Open innovation has so far been studied mainly in high-tech, multinational enterprises. This exploratory paper investigates if open innovation practices are also applied by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Drawing on a database collected from 605 innovative SMEs in the Netherlands, we explore the incidence of and apparent trend towards open innovation. The survey furthermore focuses on the motives and perceived challenges when SMEs adopt open innovation practices. Within the survey, open innovation is measured with eight innovation practices reflecting technology exploration and exploitation in SMEs. We find that the responding SMEs engage in many open innovation practices and have increasingly adopted such practices during the past 7 years. In addition, we find no major differences between manufacturing and services industries, but medium-sized firms are on average more heavily involved in open innovation than their smaller counterparts. We furthermore find that SMEs pursue open innovation primarily for market-related motives such as meeting customer demands, or keeping up with competitors. Their most important challenges relate to organizational and cultural issues as a consequence of dealing with increased external contacts. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/16712/ 2008-12-01T00:00:00Z Part of the advantages of using an open innovation (compared to closed innovation) in corporate venturing can be explained by applying the real options approach. Open innovation in risk-laden activities such as corporate venturing has the following advantages: i. benefits from early involvement in new technologies or business opportunities, ii. delayed financial commitment, iii. early exits reducing the downward losses, and iv. delayed exit in case it spins off a venture. We furthermore argue that these benefits do not automatically materialize. Innovation firms have to learn new skills and routines to develop the full 'real option'-potential of open innovation practices. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/13653/ 2008-02-21T00:00:00Z External knowledge sourcing is increasingly important for corporate entrepreneurship. In this study, we examine the effect of external and relational uncertainty on the governance choice for inter-organizational technology sourcing. We develop a number of hypotheses about the impact of environmental turbulence, technological newness, technological distance and prior cooperation on the choice between different governance modes. Data about external technology sourcing transactions in the pharmaceutical industry do not provide evidence for a continuum from less to more integrated sourcing modes. However, we find that the ranking depends on the type of uncertainty, indicating that firms tackle different types of uncertainty with different governance modes.