Unmixed signals: How reputation and status affect alliance formation
研究科技行业中，新创企业创始人的声誉和地位如何独立且交互地影响在位企业与其结盟的决策，发现两者一致时影响更强，且低声誉低地位组合的负面效应大于高声望高地位组合的正面效应。
We analyze how incumbents in technology‐driven industries are influenced by founders' reputation and status when considering strategic alliances with newly emerging firms. We theorize that reputation and status represent two distinct components of perceived quality that exert independent and interdependent effects on alliance formation. Using literature on impression formation processes to derive predictions of signal congruence, we argue that the independent effects of reputation and status are amplified when the two are congruent, and that the effect of negative congruence (both reputation and status are low) is stronger than positive congruence (both are high). We find support for our arguments based on panel data on alliances between pharma and biotech firms, using data on biotech scientists' research output (reputation) and university attended (status) . Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.