ABSTRACT
The first theme refers to the role of STAs in the management of risk and uncertainty. While technological risk-sharing is often mentioned as an important motivation behind alliances (Section 2.3), empirical assessment of this claim, beyond examples and case studies, is rare.6 Relatedly, empirical research lags behind theoretical investigations that have started to explore the role of STAs as real options (Section 3.2). At the node level, large scale analyses on how firms manage their portfolio of alliances, possibly based on publicly available information such as patent data, appear promising. Furthermore, it can be noted that at the firm level technological risk interacts with the risk of opportunistic behaviour as partnerships evolve (Section 4.1). Such analyses would be particularly important in the discussion of the impact of networking on performance (Section 4.2) especially with regard to the strategic and managerial implications of alliances met in the literature. The empirical analysis of STAs and risk management would have consequences at the meso level as well. In fact, the discussion on the role of networks in the ‘collective’ direction of technological change in industry put forth in Section 5.2 deserves much more empirical investigation than it has received until now. The comparison of different networks (different technologies or the same technologies in the different countries) in their relationship with risk management, and the impact that their structural properties have on such relationships, are important issues with clear consequences on the industrial and technology policy debate.
