How do Pre-Entrants to the Industry Incubation Stage Choose between Alliances and Acquisitions for Technical Capabilities and Specialized Complementary Assets?

47 Pages Posted: 26 Mar 2020

See all articles by Mahka Moeen

Mahka Moeen

University of Wisconsin - Madison

Will Mitchell

University of Toronto

Date Written: February 29, 2020

Abstract

Focusing on the incubation stage of a potential new industry, this paper addresses a gap at the intersection of the external sourcing and market entry literatures by examining pre-entry external sourcing of new resources. Besides drawing on their legacy resources, pre-entrants during industry incubation commonly use alliances and acquisitions to obtain technical capabilities and complementary assets, thereby creating a portfolio of sourcing modes that collectively shapes the firms’ paths to potential market entry. We identify a key pattern at the intersection of type of sourcing mode and type of resource: pre-entrants to the incubation stage are more likely to use alliances to source technical capabilities and acquisitions to source specialized complementary assets. Our empirical context is the agricultural biotechnology industry.

Keywords: alliance, acquisition, incubation stage, entry mode, nascent industries, capabilities

Suggested Citation

Moeen, Mahka and Mitchell, Will, How do Pre-Entrants to the Industry Incubation Stage Choose between Alliances and Acquisitions for Technical Capabilities and Specialized Complementary Assets? (February 29, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3546656 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3546656

Mahka Moeen (Contact Author)

University of Wisconsin - Madison ( email )

716 Langdon Street
Madison, WI 53706-1481
United States

Will Mitchell

University of Toronto ( email )

105 St George Street
Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G8
Canada

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