Does a firm that successfully absorbs knowledge from an alliance partner learn to protect its own knowledge in subsequent alliances? Our analysis of 529 alliances of East Asian firms during 1999–2015 suggests that as firms more skillfully overcome their partners’ knowledge protection, they learn to better protect their own knowledge in subsequent alliances. However, such vicarious learning increases at a diminishing rate and is further weakened by the firm’s relative absorptive capacity and the value chain scope of the previous alliance. Our study extends research on learning in alliances by demonstrating cross-alliance dynamics and by revealing conditions under which absorbing knowledge from previous partners helps a firm protect its own knowledge in subsequent alliances.

中文翻译：

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捕食者会变成猎物吗？联盟中的知识溢出和保护


成功从联盟伙伴那里吸收知识的公司是否学会在随后的联盟中保护自己的知识？我们对 1999 年至 2015 年期间 529 个东亚企业联盟的分析表明，随着企业更熟练地克服合作伙伴的知识保护，它们学会在随后的联盟中更好地保​​护自己的知识。然而，这种替代性学习的增长速度在递减，并且会因企业的相对吸收能力和先前联盟的价值链范围而进一步削弱。我们的研究通过展示跨联盟动态并揭示从以前的合作伙伴那里吸收知识有助于企业在后续联盟中保护自己的知识的条件，扩展了对联盟学习的研究。