Economic vs. organisational perspective on inter-organisational relations? analysis ? are economists on the dead-end track?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/EQUIL.2016.008Keywords:
inter-organizational relations theory, transaction costs theory, NEI, resource based view, relational viewAbstract
Inter-organizational relations (IORs), complex constructs existing on the verge of companies? boundaries, are a popular area of managerial and academic investigation, due to their ability to create sustainable competitive advantage. The aim of the article is to show applicability, insights and limitations of economic perspective in IORs analysis. By reviewing advances of selected economic and organizational theories exploring IORs, we will try to answer the following questions: (1) Can economic thought add any novelty to IOR analysis in the era of dynamic global shifts in competitive environment? Are economic lenses still useful and applicable here? (2) Do organizational sciences? academics take more practical, down to earth approach, or have they just moved forward (or blurred the clarity of) their theories by employing advances from social sciences, like sociology and psychology? (3) Are these two perspectives contradictory or supplementary? The article is divided into four parts. Firstly, we propose an analytical framework to study inter-organizational relations, secondly we analyze the theories focused on IORs as results of rational choices; thirdly, we move to theories exploring the reasons why IORs are built in a specific way, and then to concepts looking for conditions, methods and key drivers of IORs successful management. In conclusion, we give a brief summary of the main findings together with the limitations and areas open for further investigation of inter-organizational relations.
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References
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Godfrey, P. C. & Hill, Ch. (1995). The Problem of Unobservables in Strategic Management Research. Strategic Management Journal, 16. http://dx.doi.org/10 .1002/smj.4250160703.
Gomes-Casseres, B. (1994). Group Versus Group: How Alliance Networks Compete. Harvard Business Review, July-August.
Grannovetter, M. S. (1985). Economic Action and Social Structure: the Problem of Embeddedness. American Journal of Sociology, 91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086 /228311.
Gulati, R. & Sytch, M. (2008). Does Familiarity Breed Trust? Revisiting the antecedents of trust. Managerial and Decision Economics, 29.
Gulati, R. (1995). Does Familiarity Breed Trust? The Implications of Repeated Ties for Contractual Choice in Alliances. Academy of Management Journal, 38(1).
Gulati, R. & Singh. H. (1998). The Architecture of Cooperation: Managing Coordination Costs and Appropriation Concerns in Strategic Alliances. Administrative Science Quarterly, 43.
Gulati, R., & Sytch, M. (2008). Does Familiarity Breed Trust? Revisiting the antecedents of trust. Managerial and Decision Economics, 29.
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Jacobides, M. G. & Billinger, S. (2005). Designing the Boundaries of the Firm: From ?Make, Buy or Ally? to the Dynamic Benefits of Vertical Architecture. Organization Science, 17(2).
Kenis, P. & Knoke, D. (2002). How Organizational Field Networks Shape Inter-organisational Tie-formation Rates. Academy of Management Review, 27. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/AMR.2002.6588029.
Knoke, D., & Chen, X. (2010). Political Perspectives on Inter-organizational Networks. In S. Cropper, M. Ebers, C. Huxham & P. Smith Ring (Eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Inter-Organizational Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Krupski, R. (Ed.) (2008). Elastyczność organizacji. Wrocław: The Wrocław University of Economics Publishing House.
Lavie, D. (2006). The Competitive Advantage of Interconnected Firms: An Extension of the Resource-based View. Academy of Management Review, 31(3). http://dx.doi.org/1-.4135/9781412954006.n32.
Lomi, A., Negro, G., & Finti, F. (2010). Evolutionary perspectives on Inter-organizational Relations. In S. Cropper, M. Ebers, C. Huxham & P. Smith Ring (Eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Inter-Organizational Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lorenzoni, G., & Lipparini, A. (1999). The Leveraging of Inter-firm Relationships as a Distinctive Organizational Capability: A Longitudinal Study. Strategic Management Journal, 20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-0266(19990 4)20:4%3C317::AID-SMJ28%3E3.0.CO:2-3.
Lotia, N., & Hardy, C. (2010). Critical Perspectives on Collaboration. In S. Cropper, M. Ebers, C. Huxham & P. Smith Ring (Eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Inter-Organizational Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Madhkok, A. (2005). Transaction (in)Efficiency, Value(In)Efficiency, and Inter-firm Collaboration. In D. O. Faulkner & M. de Rond (Eds.). Cooperative Strategy. Economic, Business, and Organizational Issues. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McCarthy, I. & Anagnostou, A. (2004). The Impact of Outsourcing on the Transaction Costs and Boundaries of Manufacturing. International Journal of production Economics, 88(1).
Nalebuff, B., & Brandenburger, A. (1996). Co-opetition. New York: Doubleday.
North, D. (1986). The New Institutional Economics. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 142.
North, D. (1992). Institutions, Ideology and Economic Performance. CATO Journal, 11(3).
Ostrom, E. (1986). An Agenda for the Study of Institutions. Public Choice, 48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00239556.
Pfeffer, J. (1992). Managing with Power: Politics and Influence in Organizations, Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Pfeffer, J., & Salancik, G. R. (2003). The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective. Stanford California: Stanford Business Books.
Podolny, J. M. & Stuart, T. E. (1995). A Role-based Ecology of Technological Change. American Journal of Sociology, 100(5).
Powell, W. (1990). Neither Market Nor Hierarchy: Network Forms of Organization. Research in Organizational Behavior, 12. http://dx.doi.org/10.108 6/230637.
Ratajczak, M. (1994). Nowa ekonomia instytucjonalna a problem przejścia. In W. J. Otta (Ed.). Droga do rynku. Aspekty mikroekonomiczne. Poznań: University of Economics in Poznań Publishing House.
Riker, W. H. (1980). Implications from the Disequilibrium of Majority Rule for the Study of Institutions. American Political Science Review, 74. http://dx.doi. org/10.2307/1960638.
Rokita, J. (Ed.) (2010). Problemy zarządzania organizacjami w warunkach nieprzewidywalności zmian. Katowice: Górnośląska Wyższa Szkoła Handlowa.
Rooks, G., Raub, W., Selten, R., & Tazelaar, F. (2000). How Inter-firm Co-operation Depends on Social Embeddedness: a Vignette Study. Acta Sociologica. 43(2). http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/000169930004300203.
Serrat, O. (2009). Learning in Strategic Alliances. Knowledge Solutions, September.
Shepsle, K. (1989). Studying Institutions: Some Lessons from the Rational Choice Approach. Journal of Theoretical Politics, 1. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/095 1692889001002002.
Simon, H. A.(1987). Rationality in Psychology and Economics. In R. E. Hogarth & M. W. Reder (Eds.). Rational Choice. The Contrast Between Economics and Psychology. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
Smith, K. G., Carroll, S. J., & Ashford, S. J. (1995). Intra- and Inter-organisational Cooperation: Toward a research agenda. Academy of Management Journal, 39.
Stępień, B. & Szarzec, K. (2007). Ewolucja poglądów teorii ekonomii na temat koncepcji człowieka gospodarującego. Ekonomista, 1.
Stępień, B. (2001). Procesy przystosowawcze przedsiębiorstw postsocjalistycznych do warunków rynkowych. Poznań: Poznań University of Economics Publishing House.
Stępień, B. (2007). Przedsiębiorstwa międzynarodowe - instytucjonalnie uwarunkowane systemy polityczne. In J. Rymarczyk (Ed). Regionalizacja i globalizacja we współczesnym świecie. Wrocław: Wrocław University of Economics Publishing House
Sulimowska-Formowicz, M., & Stępień, B. (2014). Składowe i granice zarządzania kompetencjami relacyjnymi w organizacji. In P. Wachowiak & S. Winch (Eds.). Granice w zarządzaniu kapitałem ludzkim. Warsaw: Warsaw School of Economics.
Uzzi, B. (1997). Social Structure and Competition in Inter-firm Networks: The Paradox of Embeddedness. Administrative Science Quarterly, 42. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2393808.
Williams, M. (2006). Mastering Leadership. London: Thorogood.
Williamson, O. E. (1991). Comparative Economic Organization: The Analysis of Discrete Structural Alternatives. Administrative Science Quarterly, 36. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2393356.
Ząbkowicz, A. (1991). Współczesna ekonomia instytucjonalna wobec głównego nurtu ekonomii. Ekonomista, 6.
Zajac, E., Olsen, C. (1993). From Transaction Cost to Transaction Value Analysis: Implications for the Study of Interorganizational Strategies. Journal of Management Studies, 30.
Cropper, S., Ebers, M., Huxham, C., & Smith Ring, P. (Eds.) (2010). The Oxford Handbook of Inter-Organizational Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cyfert, S. (2012). Granice organizacji. Poznań: The Poznań University of Economics Publishing House.
DiMaggio, P. J., & Powell, W. W. (1991). Introduction in : The New Institutionalism in Organisational Analysis. In W. W. Powell & P. J. DiMaggio (Eds.). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Dyer, J. H. (1997). Effective Inter-firm Collaboration: How Firms Minimize Transaction Cost and Maximize Transaction Value, Strategic Management Journal, 18.
Dyer, J. H., & Singh, H. (1998). The Relational View: Cooperative Strategy and Sources of Interorganizational Competitive Advantage. Academy of Management Review, 23.
Faulkner, D. O., & de Rond, M. (2005). Perspectives on Cooperative Strategy. In D. O. Faulkner & M. de Rond (Eds.). Cooperative Strategy. Economic, Business, and Organizational Issues. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Faulkner, D. O., & de Rond, M. (Eds.) (2005). Cooperative Strategy. Economic, Business, and Organizational Issues, Oxford: Oxford University Press,
Ghoshal, S., & Moran, P. (1996). Bad for Practice: A Critique of the Transaction Cost Theory. Academy of Management Review, 21(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.54 65/AMR.1996.9602161563.
Godfrey, P. C. & Hill, Ch. (1995). The Problem of Unobservables in Strategic Management Research. Strategic Management Journal, 16. http://dx.doi.org/10 .1002/smj.4250160703.
Gomes-Casseres, B. (1994). Group Versus Group: How Alliance Networks Compete. Harvard Business Review, July-August.
Grannovetter, M. S. (1985). Economic Action and Social Structure: the Problem of Embeddedness. American Journal of Sociology, 91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086 /228311.
Gulati, R. & Sytch, M. (2008). Does Familiarity Breed Trust? Revisiting the antecedents of trust. Managerial and Decision Economics, 29.
Gulati, R. (1995). Does Familiarity Breed Trust? The Implications of Repeated Ties for Contractual Choice in Alliances. Academy of Management Journal, 38(1).
Gulati, R. & Singh. H. (1998). The Architecture of Cooperation: Managing Coordination Costs and Appropriation Concerns in Strategic Alliances. Administrative Science Quarterly, 43.
Gulati, R., & Sytch, M. (2008). Does Familiarity Breed Trust? Revisiting the antecedents of trust. Managerial and Decision Economics, 29.
Hakansson, H., & Ford, D. (2002). How Should Companies Interact in Business Networks? Journal of Business Research, 55, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0148-2963(00)00148-X.
Hakansson, H., & Snehota, I. (1995). Developing Relationships in Business Networks. London, New York: Rutledge,
Hannan, M. T. & Freeman, J. H. (1984). Structural Inertia and Organizational Change. American Journal of Sociology, 42(2).
Hansen, M., & Schaumburg-Mueller, H. (2006). Introduction and Analytical Framework. In M. Hansen & H. Schaumburg-Mueller (Eds.). Transnational Corporations and Local Firms in Developing Countries ? Linkages and Upgrading. Gylling: Copenhagen Business School Press.
Hansen, M. H., Hoskisson, R. E., & Barney, J. B. (2008). Competitive advantage in alliance governance: resolving the opportunism minimization ? gain maximization paradox. Managerial and Decision Economics, 29.
Hennart, H. F. (2010). Transaction Costs Perspectives on Inter-organizational Relations. In S. Cropper, M. Ebers, C. Huxham, & P. Smith Ring (Eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Inter-Organizational Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hennart, J.-F. (1993). Explaining the Swollen Middle: Why Most Transactions are a Mix of Market and Hierarchy. Organization Science, 4. http://dx.doi.org/10. 1287/orsc.4.4.529.
Huxham, Ch., & Beech, N. (2010). Inter-organizational Power. In S. Cropper, M. Ebers, C. Huxham & P. Smith Ring (Eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Inter-Organizational Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jacobides, M. G. & Billinger, S. (2005). Designing the Boundaries of the Firm: From ?Make, Buy or Ally? to the Dynamic Benefits of Vertical Architecture. Organization Science, 17(2).
Kenis, P. & Knoke, D. (2002). How Organizational Field Networks Shape Inter-organisational Tie-formation Rates. Academy of Management Review, 27. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/AMR.2002.6588029.
Knoke, D., & Chen, X. (2010). Political Perspectives on Inter-organizational Networks. In S. Cropper, M. Ebers, C. Huxham & P. Smith Ring (Eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Inter-Organizational Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Krupski, R. (Ed.) (2008). Elastyczność organizacji. Wrocław: The Wrocław University of Economics Publishing House.
Lavie, D. (2006). The Competitive Advantage of Interconnected Firms: An Extension of the Resource-based View. Academy of Management Review, 31(3). http://dx.doi.org/1-.4135/9781412954006.n32.
Lomi, A., Negro, G., & Finti, F. (2010). Evolutionary perspectives on Inter-organizational Relations. In S. Cropper, M. Ebers, C. Huxham & P. Smith Ring (Eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Inter-Organizational Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lorenzoni, G., & Lipparini, A. (1999). The Leveraging of Inter-firm Relationships as a Distinctive Organizational Capability: A Longitudinal Study. Strategic Management Journal, 20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-0266(19990 4)20:4%3C317::AID-SMJ28%3E3.0.CO:2-3.
Lotia, N., & Hardy, C. (2010). Critical Perspectives on Collaboration. In S. Cropper, M. Ebers, C. Huxham & P. Smith Ring (Eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Inter-Organizational Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Madhkok, A. (2005). Transaction (in)Efficiency, Value(In)Efficiency, and Inter-firm Collaboration. In D. O. Faulkner & M. de Rond (Eds.). Cooperative Strategy. Economic, Business, and Organizational Issues. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McCarthy, I. & Anagnostou, A. (2004). The Impact of Outsourcing on the Transaction Costs and Boundaries of Manufacturing. International Journal of production Economics, 88(1).
Nalebuff, B., & Brandenburger, A. (1996). Co-opetition. New York: Doubleday.
North, D. (1986). The New Institutional Economics. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 142.
North, D. (1992). Institutions, Ideology and Economic Performance. CATO Journal, 11(3).
Ostrom, E. (1986). An Agenda for the Study of Institutions. Public Choice, 48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00239556.
Pfeffer, J. (1992). Managing with Power: Politics and Influence in Organizations, Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Pfeffer, J., & Salancik, G. R. (2003). The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective. Stanford California: Stanford Business Books.
Podolny, J. M. & Stuart, T. E. (1995). A Role-based Ecology of Technological Change. American Journal of Sociology, 100(5).
Powell, W. (1990). Neither Market Nor Hierarchy: Network Forms of Organization. Research in Organizational Behavior, 12. http://dx.doi.org/10.108 6/230637.
Ratajczak, M. (1994). Nowa ekonomia instytucjonalna a problem przejścia. In W. J. Otta (Ed.). Droga do rynku. Aspekty mikroekonomiczne. Poznań: University of Economics in Poznań Publishing House.
Riker, W. H. (1980). Implications from the Disequilibrium of Majority Rule for the Study of Institutions. American Political Science Review, 74. http://dx.doi. org/10.2307/1960638.
Rokita, J. (Ed.) (2010). Problemy zarządzania organizacjami w warunkach nieprzewidywalności zmian. Katowice: Górnośląska Wyższa Szkoła Handlowa.
Rooks, G., Raub, W., Selten, R., & Tazelaar, F. (2000). How Inter-firm Co-operation Depends on Social Embeddedness: a Vignette Study. Acta Sociologica. 43(2). http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/000169930004300203.
Serrat, O. (2009). Learning in Strategic Alliances. Knowledge Solutions, September.
Shepsle, K. (1989). Studying Institutions: Some Lessons from the Rational Choice Approach. Journal of Theoretical Politics, 1. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/095 1692889001002002.
Simon, H. A.(1987). Rationality in Psychology and Economics. In R. E. Hogarth & M. W. Reder (Eds.). Rational Choice. The Contrast Between Economics and Psychology. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
Smith, K. G., Carroll, S. J., & Ashford, S. J. (1995). Intra- and Inter-organisational Cooperation: Toward a research agenda. Academy of Management Journal, 39.
Stępień, B. & Szarzec, K. (2007). Ewolucja poglądów teorii ekonomii na temat koncepcji człowieka gospodarującego. Ekonomista, 1.
Stępień, B. (2001). Procesy przystosowawcze przedsiębiorstw postsocjalistycznych do warunków rynkowych. Poznań: Poznań University of Economics Publishing House.
Stępień, B. (2007). Przedsiębiorstwa międzynarodowe - instytucjonalnie uwarunkowane systemy polityczne. In J. Rymarczyk (Ed). Regionalizacja i globalizacja we współczesnym świecie. Wrocław: Wrocław University of Economics Publishing House
Sulimowska-Formowicz, M., & Stępień, B. (2014). Składowe i granice zarządzania kompetencjami relacyjnymi w organizacji. In P. Wachowiak & S. Winch (Eds.). Granice w zarządzaniu kapitałem ludzkim. Warsaw: Warsaw School of Economics.
Uzzi, B. (1997). Social Structure and Competition in Inter-firm Networks: The Paradox of Embeddedness. Administrative Science Quarterly, 42. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2393808.
Williams, M. (2006). Mastering Leadership. London: Thorogood.
Williamson, O. E. (1991). Comparative Economic Organization: The Analysis of Discrete Structural Alternatives. Administrative Science Quarterly, 36. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2393356.
Ząbkowicz, A. (1991). Współczesna ekonomia instytucjonalna wobec głównego nurtu ekonomii. Ekonomista, 6.
Zajac, E., Olsen, C. (1993). From Transaction Cost to Transaction Value Analysis: Implications for the Study of Interorganizational Strategies. Journal of Management Studies, 30.
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Published
2016-03-31
How to Cite
Stępień, B., & Sulimowska-Formowicz, M. (2016). Economic vs. organisational perspective on inter-organisational relations? analysis ? are economists on the dead-end track?. Equilibrium. Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economic Policy, 11(1), 159–177. https://doi.org/10.12775/EQUIL.2016.008
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