The benefits of having an internationally diverse alliance portfolio are well known. However, the challenges remain overlooked, especially the potential to curb firms’ international expansion beyond such alliances. Building on global connectivity literature, we study how firms’ international footprint through their foreign subsidiaries is affected by the geographical spread of their international alliances. Using data on a sample of U.S. high-tech firms, we find that this relationship follows a U-shaped pattern and is contingent on alliance portfolio geographic distance and firms’ absorptive capacity for internationalization. Deviations from the optimal international footprint lower firms’ innovation and financial performance.

拥有国际多元化联盟组合的好处是众所周知的。然而，挑战仍然被忽视，尤其是限制企业在此类联盟之外进行国际扩张的潜力。基于全球连通性文献，我们研究了企业通过其外国子公司的国际足迹如何受到其国际联盟的地理分布的影响。使用美国高科技公司样本的数据，我们发现这种关系遵循 U 形模式，并且取决于联盟组合的地理距离和公司的国际化吸收能力。偏离最佳国际足迹会降低公司的创新和财务绩效。