Purpose

This paper aims to examine the effect of increases in alliance portfolio cultural diversity (IAPCD) on a firm’s performance and how portfolio configuration characteristics moderate this effect, aiming to enable managers to make better partner choice and portfolio configuration decisions to improve performance.

Design/methodology/approach

The sample includes 2,326 focal firms from 93 countries that formed 7,616 alliances between the years 1992 and 2006. This study uses generalized method of moments estimation to examine the effects of portfolio changes on next year’s firm sales performance.

Findings

Results reveal an inverted-U relationship between IAPCD and firm performance. Data limitations led to examining moderating effects only on the upslope portion of the inverted-U, indicating that an increasing percentage of joint ventures in a firm’s alliance portfolio strengthens IAPCD’s contribution to performance. Further, increased numbers of marketing alliances or research and development alliances and increased percentage of horizontal alliances in an alliance portfolio have a negative moderating effect.

Research limitations/implications

The sample mostly covers large companies. The data indicate that nearly all firms are on the upslope of an inverted-U IAPCD–to–performance relationship, allowing testing of moderating effects pre-inflection point only.

Practical implications

Firms can leverage the additions of culturally diverse partners toward improved performance through astute configuration decisions in alliance portfolio composition.

Originality/value

This paper uses the knowledge-based view to contribute to the alliance portfolio literature. This study asserts that capacity constraints affect firms’ ability to realize performance gains when taking on culturally diverse partners, an effect moderated by portfolio configurations. This paper tests hypothesis with longitudinal data.

中文翻译：

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建立更好的外国友谊：联盟投资组合和投资组合配置决策中增加的文化多样性对公司绩效的影响

目的

本文旨在研究联盟投资组合文化多样性 (IAPCD) 的增加对公司绩效的影响以及投资组合配置特征如何调节这种影响，旨在使管理人员能够做出更好的合作伙伴选择和投资组合配置决策以提高绩效。

设计/方法/方法

样本包括来自 93 个国家的 2,326 家重点公司，这些公司在 1992 年和 2006 年之间形成了 7,616 个联盟。本研究使用广义矩估计方法来检查投资组合变化对明年公司销售业绩的影响。

发现

结果揭示了 IAPCD 与公司绩效之间的倒 U 关系。数据限制导致仅对倒 U 形的上坡部分的调节效应进行检查，这表明公司联盟投资组合中合资企业百分比的增加加强了 IAPCD 对绩效的贡献。此外，营销联盟或研发联盟数量的增加以及联盟组合中横向联盟百分比的增加具有负面调节作用。

研究限制/影响

样本主要涵盖大公司。数据表明，几乎所有公司都处于倒 U IAPCD 与绩效关系的上升坡上，仅允许在拐点前测试调节效应。

实际影响

公司可以通过联盟投资组合构成中的精明配置决策，利用文化多元化合作伙伴的增加来提高绩效。

原创性/价值

本文使用基于知识的观点为联盟投资组合文献做出贡献。这项研究断言，能力限制会影响公司在接受文化多样化的合作伙伴时实现绩效收益的能力，这种影响受投资组合配置的影响。本文用纵向数据检验假设。