No description available.

In 2015, Swedish Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs) served as the backbone of society, assisting 162.877 immigrant refugees escaping conflict zones throughout the world. As the thrive to include newcomer refugees in the Swedish society continues, non-profits are facing numerous of challenges such as operating in highly competitive environments marked by shrinking grant budgets and increased pressure to provide long-term impact. To achieve optimal NPO organizational sustainability, the non-profit sector must therefore interact and learn how to address the aforementioned difficulties collectively. Furthermore, existing studies emphasizes the scarcity of research on learning through non-profit collaboration, as the knowledge management and organizational learning field has mostly concentrated on the for-profit sector rather than the non-profit sector. To fill this research gap, this study uses a qualitative approach to investigate NPO perceptions of interorganizational learning through collaboration, conducting ten semi-structured interviews with NPO employees working with newcomer refugees in Sweden. The results indicated that the NPOs’ learning outcomes connected to the need for collective sensemaking of the Swedish government’s new migration policies, which had a significant influence on the target groups prospects of remaining in Sweden. Moreover, the NPOs learned from unsuccessful collaborations, resulting in changes to the organizations’ routines and processes aimed at improving future collaborations. As a consequence, learning outcomes were incorporated into their organizational memory through digital Knowledge Management Systems such as Google Drive and Rise-Up. They were, however, heavily reliant on people’s willingness to share tacit and explicit knowledge, as well as an organizational culture that encouraged them to knowledge share. As a result, most non-profits either did not upgrade these systems at all or did not have the technological infrastructure to do so in the first place.

This thesis commences with the notion that interorganizational exchange relationships are dynamic to an unprecedented degree. It is argued that, global production networks have integrated firms into interdependent structures that blur traditional geographical and organizational boundaries. It is also true that the same networks bring together companies with diverse socio-cultural and economic backgrounds. Thus, the thesis focuses on the complexity of the contemporary international business landscape. The purpose of the work performed was to understand the process of change in interorganizational relationships under these complexities. Through a qualitative study of two main cases and a pilot study, the thesis investigates the networking behavior and the relationship dynamics between multinational companies from Sweden and Turkey, operating in Turkish and Swedish markets, respectively. By examining how firms create, maintain, dissolve and reconstruct their relationships, the thesis contributes to problematizing some of the assumptions that are commonly taken for granted, but which underpin several studies of interorganizational relationship dynamics. The findings illustrate that as recent trends such as cross-border acquisitions frequently perturb the contexts within which firms are embedded, the impact might be favorable for some actors, while others might push for new and different ‘directions’, finding the existing relational arrangements and resource structures counter to their future goals. Yet, the actions of parties are constrained by the structural position in which they find themselves. Thus, the development of an exchange relationship involves multiple processes, often inconsistent with one another, thereby disturbing the stability of the relationship. Through the aggregation of each paper’s contribution, the “Thesis Summary” offers a wide perspective of the relationship dynamics. By incorporating both teleological and dialectical views, the framework proposed captures both the actions undertaken by individual firms to make change, and the structural forces both promoting and opposing change. Ultimately, the thesis offers a framework for investigating the impact of complexity on change in interorganizational relationships, opening doors to an improved understanding of the significance divergent perspectives and disruptive experiences have on relationship change.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

An interaction dynamics perspective conceives the cooperation process as an action chain consisting of the actions and reactions between cooperating partners when they respond to disruptive events. The action chain is characterized by three constructs: action acquiescence, action simplicity, and action reciprocity. I further develop an action pattern model that clarifies the relationships among partner relation, governance structure, action pattern, and cooperation performance in a partnership. / Extant literature in strategic alliance has inconsistent conclusions on why some cases of cooperation succeed but some fail. I argue that the interaction process in cooperation may be the missing piece in the puzzle. Drawing on an interaction dynamics perspective, this dissertation examines what factors affect the interaction process and how variations of the interaction process affect cooperation performance. / In the second study, a questionnaire survey was conducted and a sample of 263 construction projects was obtained. The regression analysis indicated that partner relation affected action pattern, and this effect was moderated by governance structure. Contrary to conventional belief that action pattern mediates the effect of partner relation on cooperation performance, I found that action pattern and partner relation affected cooperation performance independently. / The action pattern model was empirically tested in the dyadic partnership between architects and contractors in two related studies. In the first study, qualitative data from 12 construction partnerships were collected through semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, and documents between architects and contractors. Overall, the case studies provided some "thick descriptions" of the action repertoire in cooperation. Results showed that cooperating partners adopted particular actions as deliberate strategic signaling to each other and as a means of reward/punishment. Moreover, actions tended to stabilize after repeated interaction cycles as cooperating partners categorized each other into specific portraits. / The interaction dynamics approach provides a new and promising perspective to study inter-firm cooperation. This dissertation suggests that how process unfolds in cooperation is crucial for cooperation success and carefully "matched" alliance may fail without appropriate management of the interaction process. / Lui Siu-yun Steven. / "August 2000." / Adviser: Ngo Hang-Yue. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 61-08, Section: A, page: 3253. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-156). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest dissertations and theses, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

<div> <p>In this dissertation, I investigate how entrepreneurial ventures and industry incumbents enter into interorganizational relationships in the context of corporate venture capital (CVC) investments. In Essay 1, drawing from the literature on employee mobility and entrepreneurship, I investigate how the competitive tension between spinouts and their parent firms with regard to potential knowledge diffusion influences other industry incumbents’ decisions to invest in spinouts. Specifically, I suggest that a high level of technological overlap between a spinout and its parent firm deters other industry incumbents from investing in the spinout due to anticipated hostile actions by the parent firm. Moreover, such negative effects can be amplified when the parent firm has a strong litigiousness to claim its intellectual property rights. I also consider that the negative effects can be mitigated when industry incumbents expect to benefit from gaining indirect access to parent firms’ technological knowledge through investing in spinouts.</p><p><br></p> <p>In Essay 2, I focus on academic hybrid entrepreneurs—defined as individuals who found their own ventures while working at academic institutions (e.g., professors, scientists)—and investigate how their intended exit strategy influences their decisions regarding CVC financing. Specifically, I first propose that academic hybrid entrepreneurs may have strong preferences for acquisitions over initial public offerings as an exit strategy for their ventures because of the high level of opportunity/switching costs associated with transitioning between their academic roles and entrepreneurial activities. Drawing from the literature on mergers and acquisitions, I then suggest that compared to other ventures, those founded by academic hybrid entrepreneurs are more likely to receive funding from CVC investors to effectively disclose the quality of their resources and knowledge to potential acquirers.</p><p><br></p> <p>In Essay 3, I examine how the industry incumbents’ relative positions in technology domains vis-à-vis other firms influence their CVC investment activities. Drawing upon the literature on factor market, I conceptualize CVC investments as external knowledge acquisition activities in knowledge factor markets consisting of several different technology domains. Building on this conceptualization, I emphasize that industry incumbents’ choices of investment areas are dependent on their positions vis-à-vis their rival investors in a given technology domain. This is because a firm’s technology position in a given domain can simultaneously influence the opportunities and incentives that jointly determine the likelihood of CVC investments in the domain. The theoretical arguments and empirical results suggest that firms with intermediate technology positions (i.e., technology intermediates) with moderate levels of opportunities and incentives are more likely to make CVC investments than are technology laggards and leaders with the lowest levels of opportunities and incentives, respectively.</p></div>

A major question in the study of complex organizations is whether it is possible to develop a useful taxonomy which identifies the crucial aspects of organizations and classifies them in a significant manner. One group of typologies of complex organizations focuses on the relationship between the organization and its environment. The purpose of this thesis is to test the validity of three existing typologies of complex organizations, each of which focuses on one aspect of the relationship between organizations and their environment. The major innovation in this research is the use of block modeling, a form of network methodology, to analyze the multiplex relationships and to establish categories of organizations in six towns in Minnesota. This categorical scheme is based on groupings of organizations that share 2 similar patterns of relationships in a community network. The first part of this thesis is an attempt to discover if the three typologies being tested, which were originally developed from data on internal organizational characteristics, are relevant categorical "tools" for distinguishing among "classes" of organizations that were grouped based on the relational data from network analysis of the six Minnesota towns. Three hypotheses are presented, each associated with a different typology to be tested: Hypothesis I - based on inputs (Resource Dependence), Hypothesis II - based on throughputs (Katz and Kahn), and Hypothesis III - based on outputs (Parsonian). Each of these hypotheses predict specific inter-organizational relationships that should be present in the empirical data. A typology is considered relevant for use in this study, if the inter-organizational relationship, predicted by the corresponding hypothesis, is found to be present in the empirical data. All three typologies examined are found to be relevant categorical tools for the network data employed in this study.

To organize and implement social development projects through interorganizational collaboration is common, but lack empirical studies from a psychological perspective. The study´s aim was to make a collaboration analysis on the implementing actors within a social development project, to understand how the collaboration was functioning. The study took place within a project for marginalized groups in Tanzania, arranged by a Swedish NGO and implemented by interorganizational collaboration. Eight participants were interviewed on six areas: Environment, Membership characteristics, Process and Structure, Communication, Purpose, and Resources. The findings highlight the complexity of interorganizational collaboration. The studied collaborative network is overall working in the same direction, but has both functional and dysfunctional areas where the dysfunctional need to be improved for the collaboration to work well. The study indicates that interorganizational collaboration brings benefits for social development projects, and the six areas studied seem to cover essential areas of interorganizational collaboration.

Title: Interorganizational accounting in close relations – A case study of the relation between a big purchasing company and two of their most important cooperation partners Course: Master thesis in Business and Administration within Accounting, 30 ECTS Advisor: Gun Abrahamsson Theoretical framework: This thesis uses theories of business relationships, management information systems and interorganizational accounting. Conclusions: Despite a difference in the relations the interorganizational accounting is designed and used in a similar way. The interorganizational accounting that exists in the two relations has a medium scope, fast timeline, high aggregation and high integration. The information is mainly used for attention directing and for decision making. Keywords: interorganizational accounting, business relations, cooperation partners Research methodology: This thesis is based on a qualitative method. Interviews has been implemented on four respondents who are highly involved in each specific relation. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe the design and use of interorganizational accounting in the relationship between a big purchasing company and two of their most important cooperation partners. The thesis will aim particular focus on integration. Authors: Rikard Magnusson and Jesper Petersson Date of seminar: 2011-01-14

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Texas at Arlington, 2008.