Promoting Digital Innovation Capability Through Alliance Portfolio Composition

Bockelmann, Theresa S.; Bendig, David; Schulz, Colin

Abstract

With increasing pressure on companies to reinvent themselves and offer new technological solutions, companies are increasingly turning to their ecosystem. While partnerships are perceived to promote innovation and thus also represent a promising solution to promote companies’ digital innovation capabilities, our research indicates that not all partnership portfolios are equally suited to advancing digital innovation. This study examines different alliance portfolio compositions and their impact on 1) a firm’s produced digital innovation quantity and 2) the quality of such digital innovations. In a novel methodological approach to utilize patent data from 2,559 U.S. based firms between 2006 and 2015, our analysis focuses on the influence of alliance portfolio’s size, the alliance portfolio’s degree of ambidexterity, the degree of internationality, and the degree of competition on digital patent applications and their forward citations. The research results offer significant contributions to information systems, innovation and strategic management research.