Helaine J. Korn

Dynamics of dyadic competitive interaction

In this study of firms’ entries into and exits from each other’s markets, we link research on multipoint competition to the emerging action-oriented, dyadic approach to interfirm rivalry by specifying market interdependencies between pairs of firms that condition their potential for rivalry over time. Our dynamic analysis of competitive interactions between pairs of commuter airlines in California reveals the idiosyncratic and asymmetric market microstructures that characterize dyadic competitive relationships and helps explain why firms grapple vigorously with some of their competitors while being passive toward others. We show that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between firms’ rates of entry into and exit from each other’s markets and the level of multimarket contact in competitor dyads. We also show how this basic curvilinear effect varies from dyad to dyad as a function of relative levels of multimarket contact with competitors in other dyads and the relative sizes of competitors in a focal dyad. Copyright

Chance, Imitative, and Strategic Antecedents to Multimarket Contact

We redirect research attention on multimarket contact from its consequences to its antecedents. Our empirical examination of the evolution of dyadic multimarket contacts among California commuter a...

Alliance structuring behavior: relative influence of alliance type and specific alliance experience

Purpose – Further understanding of structural hierarchy is critically needed to assess the usefulness of different alliance structures. This study goes beyond transaction cost reasoning and incorporates social exchange theoretic perspective with the aim of capturing the concurrent relationships of alliance type and specific alliance experience with hierarchy of alliance structure.Design/methodology/approach – Logistic regression analysis of data on 402 strategic alliances is used to test the two hypotheses advanced in the paper.Findings – The social‐exchange‐based hypothesis is supported – specific alliance experience is negatively related to hierarchy of alliance structure. The transaction‐cost‐based hypothesis is not supported – hierarchy of alliance structure is not greater in horizontal alliances than in vertical alliances.Research limitations/implications – Strategic alliances with different purposes, such as R&D, supply procurement, marketing, co‐production, and co‐development, may have different in...

Formation conditions, innovation, and learning in R&D consortia

Purpose – This paper aims to focus on formation motivations and processes of R&D consortia to appreciate their differential innovative and learning capabilities.Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents its argument in two separate steps. First, a two‐by‐two framework, comprising four consortium types, is developed based on two formation motivations (i.e. risk sharing and networking) and two formation processes (i.e. emergent and engineered). Four case vignettes are used to demonstrate the practical relevance of the two‐by‐two consortium typology framework. Second, the innovative and learning capabilities of each of these consortia are explored and eight propositions are advanced.Findings – The paper introduces four types of consortia: community builders, gamblers, visible hands, and opportunists. It is argued that visible hands generate greater innovation than community builders and opportunists, and community builders and opportunists generate greater innovation than gamblers. It is also argued t...

Fit between corporate strategy and alliance purpose: implications on partnering firms' performance

The fit between corporate strategy and alliance purpose is examined in this paper. While early research on alliances recognises various alliance purposes, their role in facilitating corporate strategy implementation is not delineated in the literature. Identifying two alliance purpose dimensions – impetus and context – we develop a framework to organise the different classes of alliance purposes. We argue that since alliances are moves to pursue corporate strategies, selecting alliance purposes to align with specific corporate strategies would increase the performance of partnering firms by facilitating successful strategy implementation.

Web-Based Periodicals as an Emerging Cultural Form: Incumbent and Newcomer Producers in the Early Stages of Industry Revolution

This research is an investigation of Web-based periodicals, an emerging cultural form that presents magazine content in an electronic medium. Specifically, it compares incumbent producers of Web-based complements to paper publications with newcomer producers of independent Web-based documents. Drawing on evolutionary perspectives from organizational theory, hypotheses are developed predicting differences between incumbent and newcomer producers of an emerging cultural form. Hypothesis tests on a random sample of 114 Web-based periodicals, combined with a rigorous qualitative analysis, show that incumbent producers have more characteristics that suggest longevity than newcomers, such as symbolic ties to other organizations that add credibility, advertising solicitations that attract environmental support, and clear target audiences that confer market viability. Newcomer producers are technologically more sophisticated, but the new media applications that distinguish them are impractical for mainstream use.

The role of top management teams in the development of resources and capabilities

In this manuscript, we bridge two important, but often separate, streams of strategy research on the core competence perspective and upper echelons theory. We develop a model of how top management team characteristics influence the choices made concerning resources and capabilities pursued by pharmaceutical firms and how those choices impact innovative productivity. In particular, we propose how top management team tenure, education level and functional background, as well as heterogeneity in top management team tenure and functional background, influence product line breadth and the frequency of new product market entry, in-house R&D efforts and strategic alliances.

Not All Competitors are Created Equal: The Heterogeneity of MNE Competitors and its Competitive Consequences

By virtue of their participation in multiple competitive settings, MNEs confront competitors with different attributes and in different locations, creating variations that pose different competitive challenges. We classify MNE competitors by their nationality, geographic scope, and location, and maintain that the value of a focal MNE’s assets and the intensity of the competition it faces vary in relation to these competitors. These predictions are tested on a sample of US legal-services MNEs as the focal MNEs in relation to different sets of competitors. We find support for the anticipated variations across competitor groups, suggesting that varying competitive positions of MNEs across countries is an inherent feature of international competition.