Governing the interplay of inter-organizational relationship mechanisms in open innovation projects across ecosystems
通过对十家跨国生态系统协调者的多案例研究，探索大型跨国公司如何治理跨生态系统开放创新项目中合同与关系治理机制的互动，提出一个五维顺序模型。
More and more self-interested businesses are organizing themselves in interdependent, non-hierarchically controlled networks to jointly create superior value by engaging in open innovation projects. In aligning the heterogeneous actors toward a focal value proposition, it is crucial for the orchestrators of such arrangements to manage their inter-organizational relationships by navigating the interplay of contractual and relational governance mechanisms. Despite the relevance of how contracts and relational governance co-evolve, knowledge on the interaction of contracts and relational governance in specific contexts is still missing. Through a multiple-case study of ten multinational ecosystem orchestrators, we explore how large multinational orchestrators govern the interplay inter-organizational relationship mechanisms in open innovation projects across ecosystems. Based on our findings, we propose a five-dimensional, sequential model of governing the interplay of inter-organizational relationship mechanisms in open innovation projects across ecosystems and discuss our contributions in the context of the current literature.