Distance and institution: A ‘regional’ analysis of international R&D alliance contracts

Abstract : Research is lacking on alliance international contracts. Surprisingly, previous research has concluded that contract structure is independent of the partners' nationalities. Yet empirical studies have demonstrated that contracts are heterogeneous. A deeper investigation of contract structure would allow us to understand how international R&D collaborations are managed. In this study, we code a sample of 220 biotechnology R&D alliance contracts in order to conduct an empirical comparison of the contract terms according to the partners' locations. Our results show that the regionalization perspective sheds new light on the how contract functions vary according to the partners' geographic locations and suggest that the relationships among the distances both geographic and institutional between alliance partners are complex, as are their impacts on contract structure.