Abstract: In many countries marked by deep poverty, such as Africa, entrepreneurs have the desire to build world-class businesses. These entrepreneurs face a multitude of barriers. How can multinational corporations assist entrepreneurs and still make profits? We propose a strategic alliance framework where each partner contributes a strength that creates a mutual gain for the other partners--the NGO (non-governmental organization) has an understanding of the local conditions, the corporation uses resources to assist the entrepreneur and purchase their product, and the university can measure and assess the results on successes and failures of the entrepreneurial projects. These strategic alliances encourage long-term sustainability with economic returns as well as social development goals.

Abstract: Strategic alliances and organizational collaborations have become a prevalent phenomenon among a number of industries—especially within the high-technology industries, yet we make assumptions about their influence on innovation. This paper studies how a firm’s social capital (embedded within the larger network) influences its technological diversification. We propose that a firm can expand its technological breadth through its ability to internalize resources captured through exploratory strategies and accessed through two dimensions of its social capital. We also suggest that exploitative strategies will lead to a narrow technological breadth. This study contributes to the ambidexterity (exploration versus exploitation) literature through the extension of Koka and Prescott’s (2002) multidimensional construct of social capital in examining the differential effects of social capital. Such clarification also offers better prescriptions for managers in managing the firm’s network structure.

Abstract: How does breakthrough innovation emerge in response to complex problems such as those found in biotechnology? While much research into information technology and digital convergence has been undertaken, currently, the path to technology convergence in the biosciences, which is rapidly emerging as the largest industry in the world, is poorly understood. Using wound healing products as an example, we examine the role of diversity in early-stage innovation, when varied disciplines develop multiple solutions independently which increases the diversity of the innovation system and probability of a convergent breakthrough. Our analysis suggests that a stage-based model based on both market demand and the emergence of a significant catalyst, which converts weak redundant ties into strong unique ties, is needed to describe technology convergence in the life sciences.