Strategic Bridging: The Collaboration between Environmentalists and Business in the Marketing of Green Products

Abstract

A case of interorganizational collaboration in Canada involving a retail grocery chain and several environmental groups is analyzed. In this case, one environmental group attempted to act as a bridge between business and environmentalists by endorsing a line of "green" products. Based on material drawn from news reports and personal interviews, the authors use the case to illuminate the concept of strategic bridging as a distinctive form of collaboration. Like other forms of collaboration, bridging relies on collaborative negotiations and "back-home" commitment to the outcome of the negotiations and "back-home" commitment to the outcome of the negotiations. It differs from other forms -such as joint ventures, multiparty task forces, and mediation -with respect to the degree of organizational interpenetration involved in the negotiations and the complexity of the problem of gaining back-home commitment. Based on their analysis, the authors speculate that strategic bridging is more likely to occur when the problem domain is underorganized and the willingness of the stakeholders to collaborate is low. Implications for future research are discussed.