When more is better: a contingent view of alliance partner multiplicity and a focal firm’s product innovation performance in China

Whereas strategic alliances have been widely used to foster product innovation, the extant literature offers inconsistent arguments and inconclusive empirical evidence regarding how the number of partners (i.e., partner multiplicity) in an alliance affects a focal firm’s product innovation performance. The resource-based view (RBV) posits that having more partners in an alliance should benefit a focal firm’s product innovation because of more...