La competencia entre empresas y el compromiso de colaboración de los sindicatos de capital riesgo

Using data on U.S. venture capital firm syndicates over a period of 45 years we study how competition affects firms' commitment to alliances with competitors. In contrast to prior studies that found that collaboration among competitors to be largely unsuccessful, we show that firms tend to commit more to such collaborations. We explain this phenomenon by drawing on the notion of competitive embeddedness. We argue that competing firms develop familiarity with one another and a “competitor acumen”, which - in turn - increase their propensity to invest in collaboration with competitors. In addition, we show that this effect is negatively moderated by firms’ degree of specialization and their centrality in the industry networks which act as substitutes for competitive embeddedness effects. This study contributes to building an understanding of the interplay between competition and collaboration in inter-firm alliances.