Governing the interplay of inter-organizational relationship mechanisms in open innovation projects across ecosystems

TY - JOUR

T1 - Governing the interplay of inter-organizational relationship mechanisms in open innovation projects across ecosystems

AU - Aagaard, Annabeth

AU - Rezac, Fabien

PY - 2022/8

Y1 - 2022/8

N2 - More and more self-interested businesses are organizing themselves in interdependent, non-hierarchically controlled networks to jointly create superior value by engaging in open innovation projects. In aligning the heterogeneous actors toward a focal value proposition, it is crucial for the orchestrators of such arrangements to manage their inter-organizational relationships by navigating the interplay of contractual and relational governance mechanisms. Despite the relevance of how contracts and relational governance co-evolve, knowledge on the interaction of contracts and relational governance in specific contexts is still missing. Through a multiple-case study of ten multinational ecosystem orchestrators, we explore how large multinational orchestrators govern the interplay inter-organizational relationship mechanisms in open innovation projects across ecosystems. Based on our findings, we propose a five-dimensional, sequential model of governing the interplay of inter-organizational relationship mechanisms in open innovation projects across ecosystems and discuss our contributions in the context of the current literature.

AB - More and more self-interested businesses are organizing themselves in interdependent, non-hierarchically controlled networks to jointly create superior value by engaging in open innovation projects. In aligning the heterogeneous actors toward a focal value proposition, it is crucial for the orchestrators of such arrangements to manage their inter-organizational relationships by navigating the interplay of contractual and relational governance mechanisms. Despite the relevance of how contracts and relational governance co-evolve, knowledge on the interaction of contracts and relational governance in specific contexts is still missing. Through a multiple-case study of ten multinational ecosystem orchestrators, we explore how large multinational orchestrators govern the interplay inter-organizational relationship mechanisms in open innovation projects across ecosystems. Based on our findings, we propose a five-dimensional, sequential model of governing the interplay of inter-organizational relationship mechanisms in open innovation projects across ecosystems and discuss our contributions in the context of the current literature.

KW - Inter-organizational relationship

KW - business-to-business

KW - ecosystems

KW - governance

KW - interplay

KW - open innovation

KW - project-level

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85132217240&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.indmarman.2022.06.003

DO - 10.1016/j.indmarman.2022.06.003

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0019-8501

VL - 105

SP - 131

EP - 146

JO - Industrial Marketing Management

JF - Industrial Marketing Management

ER -