As companies develop more and more collaborative inter-firm relationships with others on new product development, successful configuration and management of R&D alliance portfolios becomes even more challenging. This paper seeks to understand how different characteristics of a firm’s R&D alliance portfolio influence its ability to acquire external knowledge and how knowledge acquisition in turn influences the firm’s innovation outcomes. The central argument is that a firm’s R&D alliance portfolio strategy entails both knowledge structure benefit and relational benefit. Firms seek to achieve these two different types of benefits by bringing in different desired partners. As a result, a firm’s choice or preferences for different types of R&D alliance partners influence both the scope of external knowledge it is exposed to (knowledge structure benefit) as well as the partner’s willingness to share and the focal firm’s ability to absorb and learn from its partners (relational benefit). While certain strategies may offer firms’ the opportunity to achieve both types of benefits simultaneously, other strategies may force firms to choose one benefit over the other. In order to exploit the value of the acquired knowledge acquired from external partners, firms need to further apply this knowledge to come up with innovative products or services. Literature has further classified new product offerings into radical vs. incremental innovations based on their innovativeness and customer benefit increase. Due to the different characteristics and knowledge requirements for radical vs. incremental innovation, we investigate how different dimensions play differential roles in the development process of these two types of innovation. We empirically tested our hypothesis in the context of pharmaceutical industry with a panel data of 64 firms over 15 years. The statistical results largely support our hypothesis.

By increasing awareness of product offers and availability in the consumer’s proximity, Location Based Marketing (LBM) increases relevance of placed advertisements. However, depending on how it is executed, such advertising can also be perceived as intrusive, irritating, or even violating consumer’s privacy. Existing knowledge does not offer clear directions for retailers, who are keen to know of LBM’s effectiveness on sales. In this paper, authors investigate the effects of LBM on application (app) driven revenues of 116 major mobile retailers from around the globe. In particular, we examine the contingency effects of the roles of device as well as privacy needs of the brand audience. Findings reveal that effects of LBM on app-based revenues vary by tactic (inbound vs. outbound), type of device (Tablet vs. Phone), and user type based on brand of app (Android vs. Apple). Overall, this research identifies critical factors for retailers to consider, in order to best monetize their location based efforts. Contributions of the analysis and managerial implications are discussed.