2023 Volume 57 Issue 1 Pages 51-65
This paper focuses on how entrepreneurs’ emotions affect the decision to select their alliance partner. In the prior research, the complementarity of resources and skills, the similarity of the knowledge base to enhance the absorption capacity, and the prominence of the partner company have been discussed as the main selection criteria. In this research, we collected data through semi-structured interviews with 50 CEOs and officers of 41 entrepreneurial startup firms and conducted an analysis based on the Gioia methodology. We found that the entrepreneurs’ emotions arising from recognizing the attitudes and traits of the partner,“ self-esteem” and “empathy through similarity” influenced their decisions on partner selection. Additionally, the paper points out the asymmetry in the views of startups and existing firms. Our analysis result led to a discussion of the sources of asymmetry in open innovation.
