Does the Predator Become the Prey? Knowledge Spillover and Protection in Alliances

Does a firm that successfully absorbs knowledge from an alliance partner learn to protect its own knowledge in subsequent alliances? Our analysis of 529 alliances of East Asian firms during 1999–2015 suggests that as firms more skillfully overcome their partners’ knowledge protection, they learn to better protect their own knowledge in subsequent alliances. However, such vicarious learning increases at a diminishing rate and is further weakened by the firm’s relative absorptive capacity and the value chain scope of the previous alliance. Our study extends research on learning in alliances by demonstrating cross-alliance dynamics and by revealing conditions under which absorbing knowledge from previous partners helps a firm protect its own knowledge in subsequent alliances.