臺大管理論叢 NTU Management Review VOL.29 NO.1

Choose Foreign R&D Partners From Right Pools: A Synthesis Framework 96 1. Introduction R&D collaboration is recognized as an effective mean to acquire technologies (Belderbos, Carree, and Lokshin, 2004; Benfratello and Sembenelli, 2002; Niedergassel and Leker, 2011; Tyler and Steensma, 1995). Selecting suitable partners for R&D collaboration is a strategic decision for firms to enhance their competitive advantages (Ahlstrom, Levitas, Hitt, Dacin, and Zhu, 2014). Extensive efforts have been made to the research of the partner selection for R&D collaboration (e.g., Belderbos et al., 2004; Emden, Calantone, and Droge, 2006; Feng, Fan, and Ma, 2010; Li, Eden, Hitt, and Ireland, 2008; Miotti and Sachwald, 2003; Petruzzelli, 2011). For instance, Emden et al. (2006) suggest the process-based criteria on the interfirm factor alignments with candidates in aspects of technology, strategy and relation; Feng et al. (2010) posit that the individual and collaborative utilities are derived from the firm- and interfirm-level resources, capabilities, and goals; Li et al. (2008) focus on the characteristics of innovation, IP protection, alliance scope, and interfirm relationship; Miotti and Sachwald (2003) emphasize the firm- and technological-level demography; Petruzzelli (2011) claims for the importance of technological relatedness, prior ties, geographical distance, and cooperation with universities. Those studies emphasize heavily on fine-grained specifications of partners ( WHO ), specifically limited to the firm-level factors. Besides, Dong and Glaister’s (2006) study, which is not limited to R&D collaboration, examines the effects of motive ( WHY ) on the partner selection from perspectives of Chinese firms ( WHERE ). However, very scant research examines the strategic motive ( WHY ), the learning strategy ( HOW ), the institutional context ( WHERE ) and the partner selection ( WHO ) simultaneously, which makes this research stream fragmented and dispersed. To complement the extent research with a holistic perspective, this study proposes the synthesis framework of foreign R&D partner selection process (Figure 1) by integrating the most crucial firm-level and context-level antecedents. We review the IB literature related to the strategic motive of foreign entry and adopt the organizational learning theory to examine the relationship between the strategic motive of foreign entry ( WHY ) and the learning strategy ( HOW ), and augment the transactional costs economics and the stakeholder perspective to examine the relationship between the learning strategy and the partner selection ( WHO ) under institutional voids ( WHERE ). By examining the 2,423 outbound FDI cases of Taiwan from 2009 to 2012, we find that firms in their foreign entries for technology acquisition will adopt the exploratory