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

Choose Foreign R&D Partners From Right Pools: A Synthesis Framework 104 that the precursor to exploitation is the existence of resources, assets, or capabilities that are exploitable under firms’ controls. As such, regarding the economic returns, the exploratory learning is more uncertain and time-consuming than the exploitative learning (March, 1991; Schildt et al., 2005). Regarding the technological scope and characteristics, the exploratory learning is broader, discontinuous, and radical than the exploitative learning (March, 1991). Rooted in the IB literature and the organizational learning theory, this study proposes that, for expanding the geographical market by foreign entry, the focal firm will be more inclined to exploit its current knowledge, technologies and resources, and to localize its products through local R&D collaboration; such exploitation will help the firm save the R&D costs, effectively manage the time to market, and quickly gain returns from sales. In contrast, when the focal firm entering a host country is to acquire new technologies for advancing its long- term competency, it will be more inclined to partner local firms to explore new knowledge and technologies that it does not currently have or may be unable to obtain on its own. Hypothesis 1a: When a firm’s strategic motive of foreign entry is the market expansion, its learning strategy inclines to be more exploitative than exploratory. Hypothesis 1b: When a firm’s strategic motive of foreign entry is the technology acquisition, its learning strategy inclines to be more exploratory than exploitative. 2.3 R&D Collaborative Partners Partner selection is an important strategic decision for firms to enter foreign markets through collaboration (e.g., Adler and Kwon, 2002; Dong and Glaister, 2006; Hitt et al., 2000; Hitt, Ahlstrom, Dacin, Levitas, and Svobodina, 2004; Li et al., 2008; Li and Ferreira, 2008; Luo, 2002; Ramachandran, Clark, Mclver, and Miller, 2011; Roy and Oliver, 2009). The extant research in the R&D partner selection delineates the collaborative candidates with fine-grained specifications at the firm level. This approach is too specific and fragmented to provide a holistic view, and may make the partner selection inefficient or even averse. For guiding firms to select partners more efficiently and directionally, this study adopts the classification of stakeholders from the stakeholder theory to delineate the collaborative candidates at the group level. The most accepted definition of stakeholder is Freeman’s (1984); it depicts the stakeholder as “any group or individual that can affect or is affected by the achievement of