Toward temporally complex collaboration in an interorganizational research network

Abstract

Prior research suggests interorganizational collaboration faces temporal challenges and also opportunities yet is scarce on the role of time enabling—more often deterring—collaboration for collective benefit. Our contribution is highlighting how a large industry–academic research network developed temporally complex collaboration through varying temporal rules and relationships. The three network-developed collaborative repertoires, with their particular temporal rules and relationships, complemented the externally imposed calendar repertoire: (1) sprint repertoire, following a familiar agile method for joint research, (2) narrative time repertoire, enabling sharing research results across various events at the program level, and (3) “right” time repertoire that turned research results into action in emerging business ecosystems. With these collaborative repertoires, both the temporal diversities of home organizations and the asynchronies of the network activities were resolved for collective benefit. We contribute to the intersection of the literatures on interorganizational network collaboration and temporality.