The impacts of different R&D organizational structures on performance of firms: Perspective of absorptive capacity

Available online 15 January 2014 To speed up strategic alliance in R&D activities, different forms of R&D organization structures can be summarized into different roles including the input-oriented, the output-oriented, and the matrix organization structure. Themost commonmode of strategic alliance consists of horizontal and vertical integrations. However, the study adopting absorptive capacity to examine the impacts of different R&D organization structures on the performance of firms at different alliance modes has never beendiscussed. Therefore, the paper employs absorptive capacity tomediate the relationships between different R&D organization structures and the performance of firms. Since the theory of transaction cost economics is inadequate for addressing howwell the technological knowledge develops in the organization. A conceptual model to analyze the tension between product strategies and their strategy implementation is proposed to challenge the vacancy. Practical investigation shows that a matrix R&D organizational structure mainly transfers knowledge to input-oriented R&D organizational structures in horizontal integration, andmainly integrates capabilities from output-oriented organizational structures in vertical integration. The result implies that stronger institutional environments lead to a stronger link between product strategies and their performance in vertical integration. Oppositely, the link is strengthened if more favorable attitudes andweakermanagement controls are present in horizontal integrations. © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.