Does separation hurt? The impact of premature termination of R&D alliances on knowledge acquisition and innovation
研究了研发联盟提前终止对企业知识获取与创新的影响，发现联盟终止会降低创新绩效和技术多样性，但知识获取的外部导向减弱，而来自联盟伙伴的知识获取并未显著下降。
While there is vast research on alliance formation linked to knowledge acquisition and innovation, research is limited on the impact of alliance termination on these same dimensions. Addressing this gap and building on the knowledge-based view of the firm, we analyze the impact of premature alliance termination on knowledge acquisition and innovation outcomes. We apply a difference-in-differences and matching-based estimation to a sample of terminated and non-terminated R&D alliances in the life sciences. Our analysis suggests that alliance termination reduces innovation performance and that innovation output becomes less technologically diverse, while knowledge acquisition becomes less externally oriented. However, we find no relevant drop in acquisition of knowledge from alliance partners post alliance termination. Our exploration of conditional effects shows that firm-level factors, particularly a firm's alliance portfolio, moderate termination effects, while alliance-specific conditions have little impact.