The motives system for developing project-based inter-organizational cooperation

Abstract

Despite the importance of motives in driving cooperation formation, project management literature lacks an inclusive and systematic framework to recognize the motives for project-based inter-organizational cooperation (PIOC). PIOC that arises when inter-organizational cooperation and inter-organizational project collaboration fuse is a new form of inter-organizational relationships. By combing interview data with the theoretical framework based on prior literature, the current paper constructed a conceptual model of the motives system for PIOC, including five groups of motives related to project performance, organizational benefits, project risks, organizational risks, and relational motives. A typology of PIOC was proposed consisting of four types classified on the actors’ relative positions in the value chain and roles in the project. Differences in motives between PIOC types and differences in strength between motives themselves were discussed in light of empirical examples. This study contributes a syatematic perspective on recognizing the cooperation motives. It suggests future research to focus on the motives’ differences among various cooperation contexts due to the lack of theoretical support for these differences found in this paper.