This article provides conceptual foundations for analyzing organizations comprising multiple legally autonomous entities, which we call meta‐organizations. We assess the antecedents of the emergence of such collectives and the design choices they entail. The article identifies key parameters on which such meta‐organizations' designs differ from each other. It also presents a taxonomy that elucidates how such forms of collective action vary and the constraints they must address to be successful. We conclude with implications for research on meta‐organizational design. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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In this study, we extend the analysis of adaptation in theories of economic organization beyond traditional considerations of incentive conflict (hold-up). We conceptualize adaptation as coordinated and cooperative response to change, and define the adaptive capacity of a vertical relationship as the ability to generate coordinated and cooperative responses across procurer and supplier to changes in procurement conditions. We draw on the concepts of differentiation and integration to dimensionalize the adaptive capacity of different modes of procurement. Using data on all component classes procured internally and externally by Ford and Chrysler, we show that different procurement modes differ in terms of their adaptive capacity and performance. We also show that performance differences across modes of procurement arise as a function of the match between adaptive capacity and adaptation requirements associated with the exchange, and not only the match between governance form and transaction hazards. 1 We focus on transaction cost rather than property rights when discussing existing literature on the economic organization of vertical relationships. This is because the empirical strategy and management literature on vertical relationships is much more influenced by transaction cost economics than property rights economics (see Novak and Eppinger, 2001, for an exception).

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