Vertical technology alliances: The impact of technological depth and breadth on alliance governance structure

New high-tech firms have extensively used strategic alliances with large incumbent partners to access complimentary resources and capabilities and to finance their technology projects. However, due to their initially weak bargaining position, they tend to relinquish a disproportional amount of control rights to the larger firm that finances the R&D alliance. This raises the question: How can new high-tech firms, e.g. biotech firms, leverage their knowledge resources to retain control in alliance with larger partners, e.g. pharmaceutical incumbent firms? And, does alliance experience add to their leverage? Focusing on equity and non-equity types of alliance governance, we examine how the firm's depth and breadth of technological knowledge resources impact the choice of governance structure. Our findings suggest that high-tech firms with deeper technological resources are better able to retain control when allying with the larger firm. The relationship is stronger when the new firm has more alliance experience.