The temporal patterns of R&D alliance portfolio (AP) formation and how they link to ventures’ innovation are still a largely white spot on the map of alliance and network research. Extant studies provide important insights into the impact of AP structure and management on innovation outcomes. Yet, we still know little about the role of the temporal ordering and progression of AP formation. We address this shortcoming and adopt a longitudinal configurational approach to explore how the temporal attributes of new ventures’ alliance formation and their complex interdependencies over time link to innovation. We draw on a proprietary longitudinal dataset of 53 pharmaceutical biotechnology ventures to track when, how frequently, for how long, in what rhythm, and how concentrated in time these ventures form R&D alliances during their early development phases. Our findings reveal that within each development phase different configurations of temporal patterns of alliance formation are associated with high innovation outcome. Furthermore, our findings suggest three distinct equifinal trajectories — consistent time-paced, focused-to-time-paced, and punctuated-to- time-paced — that highly innovative ventures take to (re-)configure their AP across the early phases. By showing how the temporal attributes that characterize the patterns of AP formation relate to ventures’ innovation, this study contributes to applying a dynamic lens to AP research.
