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Chapter 6 - Interorganizational Strategizing

from Part II - Practices of Open Strategy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2019

By
Vincent de Gooyert ,
Etiënne Rouwette  and
Hans van Kranenburg
Edited by
David Seidl ,
Georg von Krogh  and
Richard Whittington
David Seidl
Affiliation:
Universität Zürich
Georg von Krogh
Affiliation:
Swiss Federal University (ETH), Zürich
Richard Whittington
Affiliation:
Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
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Summary

Increasingly, organizations choose to develop their strategy collaboratively with other organizations, which is known as “interorganizational strategizing.” These new forms of collaboration are quite remarkable not least because they seem to go against much of the traditional strategy research (Barney, 2001), which puts a premium on inimitability. Interorganizational strategizing can be formally defined as engaging in a strategy process jointly with other organizations. This definition distinguishes interorganizational strategizing from other forms of collaboration that do not involve autonomous organizations. Interorganizational strategizing may be asymmetrical, with one organization explicitly taking the lead and asking other organizations to join its strategy process (e.g., Aten & Thomas, 2016), or symmetrical, with several organizations joining forces on a more or less equal basis (e.g., Teulier & Rouleau, 2013). Interorganizational strategizing also varies in its degree of formality. On the one end of the spectrum we have collaborations in the form of official workshops and meetings. On the other end we have informal discussions on strategy among strategists that meet for instance at a conference.

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Cambridge Handbook of Open Strategy , pp. 106 - 120
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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