Capturing the dynamics of interorganizational governance implementation : a process and cybernetic based conceptualization

Purpose: The effectiveness of interorganizational governance is one of the most significant concerns of firms involved in supply chain management. Previous studies have extensively examined various interorganizational governance strategies. However, the dynamic and implementation details of interorganizational governance receive little attention, which leads to the defects of interorganizational governance literature. This study tries to explore this issue. Design/methodology/approach: Based on the process and cybernetic view, this study conceptualized four interorganizational governance processes and their respective critical activities to capture the dynamic and implementation details of interorganizational governance. Furthermore, this study investigated the mapping of governance strategies into different critical activities, which unveil the various manifestations of governance strategies across these critical activities. Findings: Four interorganizational governance processes and their respective critical activities would overarch the dynamic and implementation details of governance strategies. Furthermore, various governance strategies also would have different manifestations across the critical activities of the four processes. Originality/value: This paper fills the gaps in interorganizational governance literature in which the dynamic details of governance strategies are unclear. The new conceptualization provides a new paradigm for researchers to zoom in on the subtle dynamics of interorganizational governance. The new conceptualization indicates a few promising future research directions.