Collaborative transformation

This chapter explores issues around collaborative transformation; specifically what drives change and progress in collaborative arrangements. It focuses on collaborative transformation, provides details on four theoretical perspectives on change and discusses how each perspective is associated with four forms of collaborative arrangements: alliances, alliance portfolios, alliance networks, and business ecosystems. Collaboration has become the cornerstone of the competitive strategy of many firms, enabling them to achieve objectives that would otherwise be difficult to realize. Collaborative arrangements involve tensions that, if left unresolved, may jeopardize their success. In general, decision-makers are confronted with a tension among rational, purposeful, and calculative approaches versus approaches focusing on social bonds - individual entanglements - to encourage managers to reciprocate cooperative behaviors. Cooperation consists of the parties’ efforts to implement value-creating conditions and processes. Classical contract law relies primarily on the legal framework as a mechanism to plan exchanges, (re)negotiate contracts, and resolve contractual conflict.