Transitional governance: A critical review of implicit process assumptions

Transitional governance trajectories – i.e. trajectories in which an established firm first engages in equity collaboration with an entrepreneurial firm and subsequently acquires the entrepreneurial firm – are becoming an increasingly popular strategy for established firms to get access to novel and pioneering technologies. In this chapter, we critically assess the existing literature on transitional governance trajectories. In particular, we rely on insights from the existing alliance and acquisition literature to question three implicit assumptions (i.e. established partner is the dominant partner in transitional governance trajectories; established partner behaves as a passive financial investor during pre-acquisition collaboration and post-acquisition integration is likely to proceed smoothly) that are applied by existing studies on transitional governance. On the basis of this critical assessment, we identify theoretical, methodological and managerial challenges for future research on transitional governance.