Replication strategy Case Study 1: Theory-testing research: testing a necessary condition

can be justified, because probabilistic propositions if confirmed would only give an indication of the probability of success, whereas the necessary condition propositions would give deterministic knowledge about suc- cess factors, which, under certain conditions, could be more significant for managerial practice. The theory does not set a restriction regarding the domain of innov- ation projects aimed at product innovation. The domain covered by the theory is the universe of all instances of such alliances, without restrictions in terms of geography, economic sector, time, etc. This implies that the theory is assumed to be applicable in a large domain of different types of innovation projects, requiring a large number of replications.

5.3.2 Research objective

The objective of the research was to test a set of new propositions. Hence the study could be characterized as initial theory-testing research.

5.3.3 Research strategy

The propositions specified necessary conditions for success. The pre- ferred research strategy for testing necessary conditions is the experi- ment. The second-best research strategy is the single case study. The preferred replication strategy is a serial one in which each proposition is tested in a single case before the next case is selected. The research strategy chosen was the parallel single case study, in which each proposition is tested in five cases at the same time. An advantage of the parallel approach is that the chance of finding a rejection of the proposition in one round of parallel testing is considerably higher than with a test in a single case. A disadvantage is that more tests are conducted than strictly necessary, and that outcomes from one case cannot be used for the selection of the next case e.g. in a case from a more narrow domain if the hypothe- sis is rejected. Additionally, there is a danger that a probabilistic approach will unwittingly creep into the analysis comparative case study. We will expand here upon the advantage, disadvantage, and danger of parallel replication.