Management of the collaboration network of Italian biotech firms. Do firms experience a diminishing return from alliances?

Scholars have suggested that firms differ systematically in their ability to manage internal resources and external alliances, and that firms might experience a diminishing return from alliances. Our research examines the impact of strategic alliances on production pipelines using a sample of biotech firms; the performance of 97 Italian biotech firms is tested. It appears that the Italian biotech firms are more effective in doing research than they are in marketing technologies. Several others factors came out as significant in determining the productivity of alliances, for example: patenting, experience, size of the firm, ownership, and network centrality in the existing alliance portfolio.