A matter of survival: proposition of a framework to expand the quantity of partners in inter-organisational networks

Abstract

Inter-organisational networks represent a strategy for companies to become more competitive. The literature addresses the importance of increasing the number of partners to reach such goals, and empirically, it is noted that organisations encounter difficulty in this regard. Given this panorama, this study aimed to propose a framework to expand the number of partners in inter-organisational networks. To reach this objective, literature on other inter-organisational relationships supported the construction of a questionnaire and script for interviews. One hundred twenty managers of inter-organisational networks answered the questionnaires, and 16 managers were interviewed. These data were assessed using univariate and interpretative analyses, enabling the complementation of data. The resulting framework consists of 11 steps. This study contributes theoretically to filling a research gap and, in practical terms, serves as a guide for inter-organisational networks seeking to increase their number of partners.