دانشگاه شاهد نشریه علمی راهبردهای بازرگانی 2345-220X 22 26 2026 01 21 The Impact of Strategic Alliances on New Product Development With the mediating role of innovation (Case study of oil, gas and petrochemical industry companies) تأثیر اتحادهای استراتژیک بر توسعۀ محصول جدید با نقش میانجی نوآوری (مطالعۀ موردی: شرکت‌های صنعت نفت، گاز و پتروشیمی) 117 140 5225 10.22070/cs.2026.21767.1486 FA احمد سرداری گروه مدیریت بازرگانی، دانشکده علوم انسانی، دانشگاه شاهد، تهران، ایران. 0009-0007-1504-9076 محرمعلی نوری گروه مدیریت بازرگانی، دانشکده علوم انسانی، دانشگاه شاهد، تهران، ایران. محمدرضا دزفولی گروه مدیریت بازرگانی، دانشکده علوم انسانی، دانشگاه شاهد، تهران، ایران. 0009-0006-3628-5169 Journal Article 2026 01 18 Introduction and Purpose: Strategic alliances have become an increasingly important mechanism for strengthening the competitive position of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly in knowledge-intensive and technologically complex industries. Through strategic alliances, firms can gain access to complementary resources, knowledge, technologies, capabilities, and markets while sharing risks and costs. These advantages are particularly important in the oil, gas, and petrochemical industries, where technological complexity, substantial resource requirements, and environmental uncertainty make interorganizational collaboration increasingly important. However, establishing a strategic alliance does not necessarily guarantee successful new product development. The value generated through alliances depends on how effectively firms acquire, integrate, share, and apply knowledge and transform external resources into innovation and new products. Exploration and exploitation represent two complementary mechanisms through which organizations develop and utilize knowledge and capabilities, while innovation may provide an important mechanism for transforming these capabilities into new product development outcomes. Knowledge sharing may also influence these relationships by facilitating the transfer and integration of knowledge among alliance partners. Accordingly, the main purpose of this study is to examine the effect of strategic alliances on new product development among small and medium-sized manufacturers and suppliers in the oil, gas, and petrochemical industries, with particular emphasis on the mediating role of innovation. The study also examines the mediating roles of exploration and exploitation, the sequential mediating role of exploration and innovation, and the moderating role of knowledge sharing. Accordingly, the main research question is: How do strategic alliances affect new product development among small and medium-sized manufacturers and suppliers in the oil, gas, and petrochemical industries, and what roles do innovation, exploration, exploitation, and knowledge sharing play in this relationship? Methodology: This study is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive, non-experimental, and field-based in terms of research design. A survey approach was adopted to investigate the proposed relationships among strategic alliances, exploration, exploitation, innovation, knowledge sharing, and new product development. The statistical population consisted of 350 small and medium-sized manufacturers and suppliers operating in Iran's oil, gas, and petrochemical industries. Given the size and dispersion of the population and the practical difficulty of obtaining direct access to all senior managers, cluster accessible random sampling was employed. The sample size was determined using Cochran's formula, resulting in 183 companies. Data were collected using a researcher-developed questionnaire consisting of three demographic questions and 68 substantive items, measured on a five-point Likert scale. The measurement indicators were adapted from established scales in the relevant literature. Content validity was assessed through expert judgment, while construct validity and reliability were examined using confirmatory factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability, average variance extracted (AVE), and the Fornell–Larcker criterion. The adequacy of the measurement model was supported by acceptable factor loadings, reliability coefficients, and convergent validity indicators. The KMO statistic was 0.844, and Bartlett's test was significant. Data analysis was conducted using Excel 2016, SPSS 25, and SmartPLS 4. Because the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test indicated that the data were not normally distributed, Spearman correlation coefficients were employed to examine bivariate relationships. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to evaluate the structural model and test the hypotheses. The significance of the structural relationships was assessed using t-values and p-values, while mediation effects were additionally examined using the Sobel test. Findings: The findings confirmed the adequacy of the measurement model, with acceptable reliability and convergent validity across all constructs. The main hypothesis was supported, indicating that strategic alliances significantly affect new product development through innovation (β = 0.165, p = 0.028), with the Sobel test confirming the mediating role of innovation. Strategic alliances also significantly affected exploration, exploitation, and innovation, while exploitation and innovation positively affected new product development. Exploration significantly affected innovation and new product development, and its indirect effect on new product development through innovation was also supported. However, the direct effect of strategic alliances on new product development and the proposed mediation effects of exploration and exploitation were not supported. Knowledge sharing significantly moderated only the relationship between strategic alliances and exploration. Overall, the main hypothesis and nine of the twenty sub-hypotheses were supported. The model explained 23.9% of the variance in innovation and 52.4% of the variance in new product development. Discussion and Conclusion: The findings demonstrate that strategic alliances do not automatically lead to successful new product development; rather, their effectiveness depends on the organizational capabilities that transform external resources and knowledge into innovation. The significant mediating role of innovation indicates that innovation is a key mechanism through which strategic alliances contribute to new product development. The results also highlight the complementary but differentiated roles of exploration and exploitation, suggesting that firms need to balance the development of new knowledge with the effective utilization of existing capabilities. The limited moderating role of knowledge sharing further suggests that simply sharing knowledge is not sufficient to enhance organizational outcomes; rather, the quality, usability, and effective integration of shared knowledge are also important. Theoretically, the study contributes by integrating strategic alliances, exploration, exploitation, innovation, and knowledge sharing within a unified framework of new product development. From a managerial perspective, firms should focus on purposeful alliance management, strengthening innovation and learning capabilities, improving knowledge management practices, and developing exploration and exploitation capabilities. Overall, the study emphasizes that the value of strategic alliances lies not merely in establishing collaborative relationships, but in the organizational capabilities that enable firms to convert collaborative resources and knowledge into innovation and new products. طی دهه‌های اخیر، اتحادهای استراتژیک به‌عنوان یکی از شیوه‌های تقویت موقعیت رقابتی، برای شرکت‌های کوچک و متوسط اهمیت روزافزونی پیدا کرده‌اند؛ به‌گونه‌ای که در برخی صنایع، رقابت در سطح اتحادها (و نه الزاماً به‌طور مستقیم میان شرکت‌های کوچک و متوسط) شدت یافته است. روند فزایندۀ ایجاد مجموعه اتحادها از دهۀ ۱۹۸۰ و افزایش سهم درآمد ناشی از به‌کارگیری این استراتژی در شرکت‌های کوچک و متوسط، بیانگر افزایش اهمیت به‌کارگیری آن‌ها است. برخی از مهم‌ترین انگیزه‌های ورود به اتحادهای استراتژیک عبارت‌اند از: تسهیم ریسک ناشی از عدم اطمینان‌های موجود، ارتقای قابلیت‌ها و شایستگی‌های بنگاه، تسهیم دانش، دسترسی به منابع و فناوری‌های متنوع و جدید، تسهیم هزینه‌ها و انعطا‌ف‌پذیری، بهبود موقعیت رقابتی و دسترسی به بازارهای خارجی. انگیزه‌های یادشده موجب شده است که شرکت‌های کوچک و متوسط پیشرو در صنایع پیچیده، از قبیل نفت، گاز و پتروشیمی، به دلیل نیاز به حجم بالای منابع (سرمایه، دانش، فناوری و بهره‌وری) گرایش بیشتری به استفاده از انواع مختلف همکاری‌های استراتژیک نشان دهند. هدف پژوهش حاضر، بررسی تأثیر اتحادهای استراتژیک بر توسعۀ محصول جدید با نقش میانجی نوآوری در شرکت‌های کوچک و متوسط سازندگان و تأمین‌کنندگان صنعت نفت، گاز و پتروشیمی است. این پژوهش ازنظر ماهیت و روش گردآوری داده‌ها، از نوع توصیفی و از شاخه همبستگی و مبتنی بر مدل‌سازی معادلات ساختاری است. همچنین، ازنظر هدف، از نوع تحقیقات کاربردی است. جامعۀ آماری پژوهش را مدیران شرکت‌های کوچک و متوسط سازندگان و تأمین‌کنندگان صنعت نفت، گاز و پتروشیمی تشکیل می‌دهند که تعداد آن‌ها 350 شرکت است. حجم نمونه با استفاده از فرمول کوکران، 183 شرکت تعیین شد و نمونه‌گیری به روش تصادفی خوشه‌ای در دسترس انجام گرفت. ابزار اصلی گردآوری داده‌ها، پرسشنامه استاندارد، با بهره‌گیری از شاخص‌ها و سؤالات مربوطه بود. این پژوهش شامل یک فرضیۀ اصلی و 20 فرضیۀ فرعی است که در مجموع، فرضیۀ اصلی و 9 فرضیه فرعی تائید و 11 فرضیۀ فرعی رد شده‌اند. نتیجه پژوهش نشان می‌دهد که مدیران با بررسی روش‌های مختلف اتحاد استراتژیک، بهترین و مناسب‌ترین روش را برای ایجاد اتحاد انتخاب کنند و از سوی دیگر، میزان نوآوری در صنعت را بررسی کنند تا بتوانند بیشترین تأثیر را بر توسعۀ محصول جدید داشته باشند.

https://cs.shahed.ac.ir/article_5225_169582a799e5b6c46fdfd432379f60d8.pdf