Value co-creation in the multinational technology standard alliance: a case study from emerging economies
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-12-2021-0782 |
| Published date | 09 August 2022 |
| Date | 09 August 2022 |
| Pages | 2121-2141 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information systems,Data management systems,Knowledge management,Knowledge sharing,Management science & operations,Supply chain management,Supply chain information systems,Logistics,Quality management/systems |
| Author | Qing Zhou,Yue Zhang,Wei Yang,Liqin Ren,Ping Chen |
Value co-creation in the
multinational technology standard
alliance: a case study from
emerging economies
Qing Zhou, Yue Zhang and Wei Yang
Management School, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, China
Liqin Ren
University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands, and
Ping Chen
H3C Technology Co., Ltd, Hang Zhou, China
Abstract
Purpose –This paper aims to explore and analyze how a focal firm, coming from emerging economies, of
the multinational technology standard alliance ecosystem engages different actors of the alliance in value
co-creation practice, contributing to product collaborative innovation and reciprocal standards
cooperation.
Design/methodology/approach –Based on in-depth interviews, primary company, and secondary
documents, this paper conducts an exploratory single case study of TechAlpha to investigate the practice of
value co-creation in the multinational technology standard alliance (MTSA).
Findings –Based on the extended resource-based view (ERBV), this paper finds that in the MTSA ecosystem,
actorengagement sets the anchor for the focal firm in the MTSA to dominate the resource interaction, achieving
a greater interaction through goal co-discussion, standard co-construction and achievement co-sharing.
Resource interaction is composed of standard resource identification, standard resource sharing, and standard
resource alignment, putting a high value on the practice of value co-creation. Value co-creation dominated by
the focal firm of the MTSA is embodied in the synergy of actor engagement and resource interaction.
Originality/value –This paper contributes to the relevant literature by illustrating how the focal firm
coming from emerging economies of the MTSA enables value co-creation through adjusting the situation of
actor engagement and exerting its standards resource interaction. This paper also advances the process of
acquisition, integration, and reconstruction of heterogeneous resources throughout the MTSA by offering a
new supplementary perspective and new evidence from a Chinese firm.
Keywords Multinational technology standard alliance, Ecosystem, Value co-creation, Actor engagement,
Resource interaction
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Technology standard alliance (TSA), a special type of strategic alliance, is defined as the
relationship of cooperative activities for those organizations, which have strong research
and development (R&D) capabilities and intellectual property rights of key technologies,
to involve in and promote mainstream technology standards (Daellenbach and Davenport,
2004;Hemphill, 2009). The MTSA, with typical characteristics of a business ecosystem,
contains diverse organizations throughout different countries, which is characterized by
Technology
standard
alliance
2121
The authors thank anonymous referees and the editors of this journal for their very insightful and
constructive comments. The authors also gratefully acknowledge financial support from the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (71932005, 71874046), Hangzhou Philosophy and Social Sciences of
China (Z22JC091).
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0263-5577.htm
Received 24 December 2021
Revised 31 March 2022
25 May 2022
Accepted 31 May 2022
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 122 No. 9, 2022
pp. 2121-2141
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-12-2021-0782
various actors who depend on each other for co-evolution technology standards and
mutual skills effectiveness.
Co-creation is central to technology standards development and promotion as it creates
both the potential collaboration and the production iteration by alliance partners.
Nowadays, an increasing number of Chinese firms have expanded to overseas markets
and maintained their business ecosystem through the establishment of the MTSA. For
example, China Railway Group Limited, China Railway Construction Corporation Limited,
Haier,andmanyotherfirmshaveactivelydeveloped overseas markets and formed the
MTSA with firms in overseas markets. With the collaboration of participants in alliances,
alliance partners can not only gather diverse knowledge, experience, and problem-solving
ideas but also achieve the cross-border integration of heterogeneous resources (Duysters
and Lokshin, 2011).
However, the focal firm of the MTSA faces the challenge of coordinating multiple
heterogeneous resources while collaborating with different actors, enabling that alliance
partners are not overwhelmed by the potential hazards of the technology standards
(Ranganathan et al., 2018). In the emerging economics of South Asia and Southeast Asia,
Chinese firms, emerging as leaders in the railway field, try to build a co-creation way with
multiple participants in the MTSA to cooperate on technology standards based on mutual
benefit. The MTSA dominance by Chinese firms would imply different features of technology
standards co-creation practice, such as focusing on underdeveloped markets, lower costs,
ease of access, and a localization strategy to fulfill standard interconnection with cooperators.
Therefore, it is meaningful to explore the practice of value co-creation dominated by Chinese
firms in collaboration with other actors in the MTSA.
In the technology standard alliance ecosystem, the participating actors around a certain
technology standard interact with each other and share respective requirements through
resource integration (Ranganathan et al., 2018). Multi-actor value co-creation is considered an
activity process in which diverse stakeholders generate or maintain value through
interactions (Pera et al., 2016). With the requirement of achieving technological
breakthroughs, the focal firms from emerging economies aim at value co-creation by
integrating superior resources and capabilities among partners (Chung et al., 2018). It leads to
the promoting of technology diffussion and transformation.
A stream of literature stresses the value co-creation within alliances such as
technology spillover and conflict coordination (Ranganathan et al., 2018), value capture in
the product market (Wen et al., 2020), and collaboration between co-creating actors (Ahuja
et al., 2013;Rosenkopf et al., 2010). The multilateral set of partners in the ecosystem
interact to materialize the focal value proposition has been proposed (Adner, 2017;Pera
et al.,2016). While, how to consolidate the common requirement and engage them to co-
create value in the ecosystem is still not clear. This study aims to answer the following
research question: How does a focal firm, coming from emerging economies, of the MTSA
ecosystem gather different actors of the alliance to participate in value co-creation
practice and to achieve product collaborative innovation and reciprocal standards
cooperation?
The extended resource-based view (ERBV) is an extension of the resource-based view,
which emphasizes the relationships and integration of resources within the firm and cross-
organizational boundaries (Lavie, 2006). Using an exploratory single-case study approach,
we collected data from TechAlpha with its MTSA, a typical multinational business with
different organizations from different countries, which boasts cooperation of business
ecosystem and whose competitive advantages are stronger vis-
a-vis other multinational
enterprises (Lu et al., 2014).
This paper contributes to value co-creation by forging an explicit link between the actor
engagement and resource interaction. In this way, we try to open the “black box”of value
IMDS
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