THE EFFECTS OF EXECUTIVES EXPERIENCES AND PERCEPTIONS ON THEIR ASSESSMENT OF POTENTIAL TECHNOLOGICAL ALLIANCES

Researchers have only begun to provide explanations of how top executi ves' experiences and perceptions influence organizational decisions. D rawing from a broad theoretical base, this study tests the contention that top executives' personal experiences (age, educational background , and work experience), their perceptions of their firms' attitudes to ward technology and risk, and their perceptions regarding their firms' past success with collaborative technological development influence t heir cognitive assessments of potential technological alliances. Resul ts from the study suggest that top executives with a technical educati on place more weight on the opportunities provided by the alliance tha n those with Other types of education. Moreover, executives from firms that are perceived to emphasize technology and to have had success wi th technological alliances in the past tend to focus more on the oppor tunities provided by the alliance and less on the riskiness of the ven ture. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.