The dynamics of interorganizational relations in contemporary manufacturing : Nested negotiations in value networks

This chapter addresses the dynamics in interorganizational relations. We probe the value networks so prevalent within contemporary manufacturing to put forward that their basic cooperation/competition duality manifests itself in practical terms as capability, appropriation, and governance paradoxes. We conducted a longitudinal ethnographic study aimed at capturing the process by which interorganizational collaboration in manufacturing value networks is enacted. Our study finds that interorganizational relations are ‘nested’ in that a relationship plays out over an interpersonal network where the interorganizational relationships are a framework for action, while simultaneously interpersonal interactions affect how the interorganizational relationships take shape and evolve. Furthermore we found that interorganizational dynamics essentially is a stratified process. Solving particular and concrete problems at the surface level with regard to specific collaboration issues between organizations simultaneously shapes truces with regard to the underlying capability, appropriation and governance paradoxes.