Key problems of interorganizational collaborations: A multi-level and temporal analysis

Abstract

Researchers analyze interorganizational problems one at a time, at one level of analysis, and a specific point in time. Yet, interorganizational problems certainly appear in groups of interrelated problems that are nested across multiple levels of analysis and evolve over time. Moreover, analyzing problems independently hinders the ability to assess their relative importance. This study establishes key problems of interorganizational collaboration and highlights their timing. A multiple-case study was realized in the tourism industry. Twenty-eight semi-structured interviews, post-interview surveys, and secondary data allowed us to determine eight key interorganizational problems (interpersonal problems, lack of familiarity, cultural differences, roles and responsibilities problems, toxic work climate, inequity feeling, inappropriate governance, and passivity when problems arise). By using a multi-level and temporal analytical framework, our study contributes to the IOR literature in four ways: confirming problem nesting across levels of analysis, demonstrating greater problem diversity, highlighting relational problem dominance, and demonstrating lifecycle problem evolution.

Keywords:

• Interorganizational problems
• interorganizational relationships
• IORs
• collaboration life cycle
• coopetition
• tourism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This research is part of a larger study aiming to overcome key blind spots in interorganizational problems literature. Interactions between problems and their evolution over time are covered in a second article.

2 For each case, an abbreviated version of the original scientific narrative is presented in the Results and Discussion section.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fonds de recherche du Québec–Société et Culture.