Theories Of Interorganizational Relations Research Articles

Effectiveness of Instruments Supporting Inter-Organizational Cooperation in the RES Market in Europe. Case Study of Enterprise Europe Network

In the renewable energy source (RES) market, which is highly atomized, business events play an important role in supporting inter-organizational cooperation. The aim of this paper was to examine the impact of three characteristics of the events, namely, the location of the event, type of event (brokerage event versus company mission), and type of leading partner (public versus private), on the effectiveness of the business events (expressed by the number of meetings during an event and the number of partnerships initiated as a result of these meetings). We analyzed 304 promotional events organized in the European RES market. We employed basic statistical tests to verify our hypotheses. Our findings suggest that (1) the numbers of meetings and partnerships differ depending on the event’s location (country and region of Europe), (2) the type of the event (brokerage event versus company mission) affects the numbers of meetings and partnerships (in particular, during brokerage events (BEs), significantly more meetings take place than during company meetings (CMs)), and (3) the type of an event’s leading partner (public versus private) has no impact on the numbers of meetings and partnerships. With its findings, this paper contributes to RES market development and the theory of inter-organizational relations. It presents meaningful implications and recommendations for enterprises, business networks, and event managers operating in RES markets.

Toward a Theoretical Framework of Collaborative Destination Marketing

Marketing a destination has been a challenging task for many communities that rely on tourism for economic development. Collaborative marketing efforts of the tourism organizations representing the destination provide solutions to this challenge. This article develops an integrative theoretical framework in an attempt to explore the nature and dynamism of collaborative marketing efforts at the destination level. Specifically, a model of collaborative marketing is proposed that integrates the preconditions, motivations, processes, and outcomes of destination marketing alliances and networks based upon theories of interorganizational relations. Implications are provided and discussed from both practical and theoretical perspectives.

Managing Out

ABSTRACT With the advent of welfare reform and managed care, the nature of managerial practice has increasingly shifted from a primary focus on internal operations to a more external, community focus which involves actively monitoring and managing the boundary between the external environment and internal organizational arrangements. This article explores the boundary spanning aspects of community practice, the related theories of inter-organizational relations, and the process of “managing out” by those in top management and middle management positions in human service organizations.

Interorganizational Networks: Using a Theoretical Model to Predict Effectiveness of Rural Health Care Delivery Networks

Interorganizational health care delivery networks have potential for sustaining health services delivery in rural areas faced with economic and demographic challenges. Four Nebraska rural health care delivery networks (Albion-Ord, Blue River Valley. Rural Partners. Inc., and Western Nebraska) were compared to an interorganizational model based on theories of interorganizational relations, exchange, population ecology, and synthesized collaboration. It assumes that outcomes, including effectiveness, are influenced by external and internal factors that are operationalized through external control, technology, structure, and operational process variables. Data were collected by a non-random, two-level cluster mail survey of network, members (45/59 = 76.3% response rate). All networks received technical assistance from the Nebraska Office of Rural Health. Networks have formal organization, strategic plans, and official coordinators. Hospital administrators hold most leadership positions; few doctors or citizens are involved. Correlation and multiple regression analysis show partial fit between the research model and study networks. Effectiveness, measure by the gap between best possible and actual practice, increased with network connectivity (r=.36, p<.05), group methods of administrative decisionmaking (r=.52, p<.001) and sequential pattern of service delivery (r=.39, p<.05). Greater dependence on vertical funding corresponds to greater external control (r=.43, p<.01). The prediction that, as scope narrows, task intensity (r=.56, p<.001). duration (r=.41, p<.01), and task volume (r=.50, p<01) increase is upheld. Centrality and network size decrease together (r=.43, p<01) where there is little reliance on vertical sources of funds (r=.36, p<.05). The integrated interorganizational model demonstrates some efficacy for testing potential effectiveness of networks.

Theories of Interorganizational Relations in the Human Services

Growing concern about fragmentation and alienation in human services has refocused attention on service integration and coordination. This trend is matched by a shift of focus within organizational theory from intra‐ to interorganizational relations.However, there is no one theory of interorganizational relations, and integration efforts may therefore be studied from a multitude of theoretical perspectives. I introduce a selection of the available theoretical perspectives to the study of interorganizational relations in human services: the theory of professions, leadership and organizational learning, economic organization theory, the sociology of knowledge, and postmodernism. In addition to providing a menu of alternative approaches relevant to both practitioners and scholars, I discuss the relative advantages and drawbacks of each perspective.

The effect of EDI on market channel relationships in retailing

Abstract Many of the economic advantages of using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) result from improved relationships between business trading partners. This study develops and tests a model explaining the effects of EDI on three structural variables of inter-organizational relationships: channel intensity, formalization and information quality. The model also includes the effects of these structural variables on cooperation and conflict between trading partners, and on satisfaction and performance in a marketing channel. The model is based on Van de Ven and Ferry's theory of inter-organizational relations and the literature on marketing channels. Responses from 97 retail companies to a mail survey indicated support for the effects of EDI use on channel intensity and formalization but not on channel information quality. Moreover, intensity and formalization were positively related to channel cooperation but not to conflict. Channel performance was positively related to channel cooperation and negatively related to channel conflict. These findings suggest that EDI use improves cooperation between trading partners and leads to greater satisfaction and performance in electronically-mediated business transactions.

Changes in the theory of interorganizational relations in marketing: Toward a network paradigm

Changes in the theory of interorganizational relations in marketing: Toward a network paradigm

Changes in the Theory of Interorganizational Relations in Marketing: Toward a Network Paradigm

The marketing environment in the 21st century promises to be knowledge rich and very turbulent. The classic, vertically integrated, multidivisional organization, so successful in the 20th century, is unlikely to survive in such an environment. The evidence indicates it will be replaced by new forms of network organization consisting of large numbers of functionally specialized firms tied together in cooperative exchange relationships. This article explores the characteristics of four types of network organization that may represent prototypes of the dominant organizations of the next century. These include the internal market network, the vertical market network, the intermarket network, and the opportunity network. The economic rationale and the types of coordination and control mechanisms driving network organizations are very distinct from those studied under the current exchange or dyadic paradigm. This article analyses the kinds of changes involved in key variables and their meanings in moving from a dyadic view of exchange to a network view.

The effectiveness theory of interorganizational relations explored in the context of a developing nation

The effectiveness theory of interorganizational relations explored in the context of a developing nation

The Interorganizational Basis of Metropolitan Affairs: Exchange, Power, and Areawide Water Supply Strategies

The central concern of this study was to develop and test hypotheses which define interorganizational relationships among local governments in urbanizing regions. The hypotheses focus on the problem of allocating scarce resources among municipalities in metropolitan areas: urban water supplies. This conceptualization of the resource allocation process among semi-autonomous governmental units is grounded in theories of interorganizational relations, which identify important factors associated with cooperation and competition, which are embodied in metropolitan affairs in a broader context. The hypotheses were tested using data from a statewide survey of municipalities in North Carolina. A seven variable multiple regression model was constructed, utilizing measures of population size, growth rate, decision maker's perceptions of water supply issue salience, regional interdependence, interlocal relations, level of municipal dependence upon other governments for water supplies, and decision maker preferences for areawide water supply strategies. The analysis supports the hypothesis that decision makers of resource dependent municipalities prefer regional water supply strategies which lead to inter-local reorganization, rather than cooperative ones which maintain the status quo.

Notice of Erratum

A typographical error was made, after the page proof stage, in William M. Evan's “Toward a Theory of Inter-Organizational Relations,” Vol. 11, No. 10, August 1965, pp. B-217–B-230 in Figure 3 on page B-228.

Toward a Theory of Inter-Organizational Relations

Social science research has been concerned primarily with intra-organizational phenomena. The twin problems of theory and methodology have impeded research on inter-organizational phenomena. Merton's concept of the “role-set” is the point of departure for an analogous concept designated as the “organization-set.” The unit of analysis is an organization or a class of organizations, referred to as the focal organization, and its interactions are mapped with the network of organizations in its environment, i.e., with elements of its organization-set. Seven dimensions of organization-sets are discussed: input vs. output organization-sets, comparative vs. normative reference organizations; size of the organization-set; concentration of input organizational resources; overlap in membership; overlap in goals and values; and boundary personnel. With the aid of these dimensions, hypotheses are formulated concerning the variable of autonomy in decision-making of the focal organization. Similar hypotheses—several of which are set forth—are needed for various inter-organizational processes, such as coordination, cooperation, competition, conflict, and amalgamation. Two methodological tools which may prove useful in empirical research on inter-organizational relations, graph theory and input-output analysis, are considered.