Insights to technological alliances and financial resources as antecedents of high-tech firms’ innovative performance Giovanni Satta 1 , Francesco Parola 2 , Lara Penco 3 and Salvatore Esposito de Falco 4 1 Department of Economics and Business Studies, University of Genoa, Via Vivaldi 5, 16126 Genoa, Italy. giovanni.satta@cieli.unige.it 2 Department of Business and Quantitative Studies, University of Naples ‘Parthenope’, Via Generale Parisi 13, 80132 Naples, Italy. francesco.parola@uniparthenope.it 3 Department of Economics and Business Studies, University of Genoa, Via Vivaldi 5, 16126 Genoa, Italy. lpenco@economia.unige.it 4 Department of Management, University of Rome ‘Sapienza’, Via del Castro Laurenziano 9, 00161 Rome, Italy. salvatore.espositodefalco@uniroma1.it High-tech firms are triggered to externally acquire and combine additional supplementary and complementary resources to develop innovative capabilities and generate new knowl- edge, products, and business ideas. Firms may rely on cooperation, alliances, and other interfirm ties as well as on the external acquisition of the stock of resources and capabilities to foster their innovativeness and support their patent activity. This contribution develops and tests a conceptual framework for assessing external sources of a firm’s innovative performance in high-tech industries. By simultaneously evaluating the explanatory power of technological alliances and financial resources in shaping a firm’s innovative perfor- mance, measured as new patents registered, the paper provides some original outcomes from both conceptual and methodological perspectives. Research hypotheses are tested performing ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models on 90 European-listed firms operating in the aerospace and defence industry, engaging over 1,300 technological alliances within the 2007–2011 timeframe. The findings demonstrate that high-tech firms leverage on technological supplementary alliances to innovate and to create new knowledge embodied in artifacts such as patents. In addition, financial slack is proved to be a prerequisite for a successful patent activity in high-tech industries. Empirical outcomes, discriminating between small and large firms, bring valuable insights both for academics and practitioners. 1. Introduction I n highly competitive business environments, char- acterized by profound technological innovations, novel knowledge creation acquires a critical role in ensuring a firm’s competitive advantage (Das and Teng, 2000). As innovation and cutting-edge technol- ogies development become preconditions for surviv- ing, standing-alone strategy no longer constitutes a viable option for high-tech firms (Hagedoorn and © 2015 RADMA and John Wiley & Sons Ltd 1