Alliance formation, partner diversity, and performance of Singapore startups Nitin Pangarkar & Jie Wu Published online: 2 June 2012 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012 Abstract Drawing on the resource dependence theory, the resource-based view, and the organizational learning perspective, we examine the under-researched relationship between alliance strategy and the performance of high-tech startup firms. Specifically, we posit that startup firms forging a larger number of alliances will exhibit better performance. We also hypothesize that startups with a diverse portfolio of alliance partners will outperform others. Our analysis of 76 survey responses obtained from Internet-related startups in Singapore lends support to our key predictions. Our results are robust to the deployment of alternative performance measures. Keywords Alliance strategy . Partner diversity . Firm performance . Startups . Internet sector We aim to answer the following two questions in this study. Does forging a larger number of alliances improve the performance of startup firms? Does greater diversity of alliance partners improve startup firms’ performance? The large volume of liter- ature in managerial as well as academic publications on both the key topics (alliance strategy and startup performance) spanned by the above research questions testify to the importance of these topics. Yet, few studies in either of the above literature streams have directly examined the relationship between alliance strategy, especially at a level broader than individual alliances, and performance in the context of startups. The rich literature on entrepreneurship, for instance, has studied the Asia Pac J Manag (2013) 30:791–807 DOI 10.1007/s10490-012-9305-9 Research assistance by Mr. Goh Ruey Long is gratefully acknowledged. N. Pangarkar (*) National University of Singapore, School of Business, 1 Business Link, Singapore, Singapore, 117592 e-mail: bizpn@nus.edu.sg J. Wu (*) Faculty of Business Administration, University of Macau, Avenida Padre Tomás Pereira, Taipa, Macau, China e-mail: JieWu@umac.mo