Increasingly, firms are forming alliances to engage in cooperative innovation activities with their competitors. Participating firms in an R&D consortium can not only obtain the general benefits from cooperation, but also further promote communication and mutual learning due to the common knowledge base with their competitors in the consortium. However, R&D consortium as a typical cooperative innovation alliance has downsides too - competition in a cooperative consortium provides member firms with not only benefits, but also challenges. The opportunistic nature of competition poses a dilemma for member firms when they decide how much effort should be committed to cooperative R&D activities. This study aims to investigate the benefits and costs of competition for firm innovation in cooperative R&D consortia. The study will also identify the boundary conditions to amplify the advantages of competition in terms of the network properties of consortia. The study employs data from 649 firms in 50 Japanese R&D consortia to analyze the curvilinear relationship between the intensity of competition and firm innovation in a cooperative consortium. It was found that a focal firm with a moderate level of competition will have better innovation performance compared to those with either a low or high level of competition. Moreover, it investigates the moderating roles of the firms’ size disparity of R&D consortia and the consortium-organized interaction. The results indicate that the R&D consortium with a low size disparity amplifies the linear effect of the competition on cooperative innovation, which can help the focal firm achieve more gains from cooperative R&D. The consortium-organized interaction strengthens the curvilinear effect of the competition intensity on innovation. This study, using resource dependence theory and social network lenses, extends our understanding of the role of coopetition in firm innovation performance by filling the gap in when and to what extent the intensity of competition matters in multiparty cooperative R&D consortia. It also provides new evidence on the boundary conditions of R&D consortia managing the tension.

中文翻译：

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研发联盟中的创新合作：规模差异和正式互动的调节作用

越来越多的公司结成联盟，与竞争对手开展合作创新活动。参与研发联合体的企业不仅可以从合作中获得一般利益，而且由于与联合体中的竞争对手的共同知识基础，可以进一步促进交流和相互学习。然而，研发联盟作为典型的合作创新联盟也有其弊端——合作联盟中的竞争给成员企业带来的不仅是利益，还有挑战。竞争的机会主义性质使成员公司在决定应该为合作研发活动付出多少努力时陷入两难境地。本研究旨在调查合作研发联盟中企业创新竞争的收益和成本。该研究还将确定边界条件，以放大联盟网络属性方面的竞争优势。该研究使用来自 50 个日本研发联盟的 649 家公司的数据来分析合作联盟中竞争强度与公司创新之间的曲线关系。结果表明，与竞争程度低或竞争程度高的企业相比，竞争程度中等的重点企业将具有更好的创新绩效。此外，它还研究了研发联盟的企业规模差异和联盟组织互动的调节作用。结果表明，规模差距较小的研发联合体放大了竞争对合作创新的线性效应，这可以帮助核心企业从合作研发中获得更多收益。财团组织的互动加强了竞争强度对创新的曲线效应。本研究使用资源依赖理论和社会网络视角，通过填补多方合作研发联盟中竞争强度何时以及在多大程度上重要的空白，扩展了我们对合作竞争在企业创新绩效中的作用的理解。它还为研发联盟管理紧张局势的边界条件提供了新的证据。通过填补多方合作研发联盟中竞争强度何时以及在多大程度上重要的空白，扩展了我们对合作竞争在公司创新绩效中的作用的理解。它还为研发联盟管理紧张局势的边界条件提供了新的证据。通过填补多方合作研发联盟中竞争强度何时以及在多大程度上重要的空白，扩展了我们对合作竞争在公司创新绩效中的作用的理解。它还为研发联盟管理紧张局势的边界条件提供了新的证据。