Institutionalization of a collaborative governance model to deliver large, inter-organizational projects

Abstract

PurposeIn this study, we develop further understanding of how institutional change is created within a mature and local industry. In this pursuit, we examine how a collaborative large project governance model was institutionalized at an industrial sector-level through both industry-level activities and “institutional projects”.Design/methodology/approachThis study builds on the foundations of institutional fields and institutional change, suggesting that projects are not only shaped by their contexts but also produce institutional change themselves. We conducted extensive fieldwork on the institutionalization of a collaborative project governance model in Finland.FindingsThe findings illustrate how institutional change in governance of large and complex inter-organizational projects is created at the institutional field level. The institutionalized collaborative project governance model includes aspects of both relational and contractual governance. The change was facilitated by temporal links between the institutional projects as well as vertical links between the institutional projects and the field-level development programs.Originality/valueThis is one of the first studies to address how a collaborative large project governance model becomes the norm at the institutional field level beyond the boundaries of an individual project or organization.

“Managing the “new normal”: the future of operations and supply chain management in unprecedented times”

“…The perspectives of different stakeholders and how these dynamically change (again, a Domain 3 approach), the resolution or persistence of paradoxes, and how the different contexts of different organisations can be better understood, are all suggested as future research areas. Jia et al (2022) note that their study considers absorptive capacity from an organisational scale only and that future research could build on their findings either at the level of the individual (manager cognition in learning processesas with Al Hasan and Micheli, 2022), or at the wider cross-supply chain levelas with Aaltonen and Turkulainen (2022).…”

“…Marttinen and K€ ahk€ onen (2022) and Jia et al (2022) investigate the nature of relationships between organisations and related communications, regarding stakeholder power imbalances and leaning processes, respectively. Aaltonen and Turkulainen (2022) similarly explore how learning from one-off projects can inform the institutionalization of collaboration. Each adds understanding to the "unstructured-complex" context of the Cynefin framework and the role of communication in addressing it.…”

“…Jia et al. (2022) note that their study considers absorptive capacity from an organisational scale only and that future research could build on their findings either at the level of the individual (manager cognition in learning processes – as with Al Hasan and Micheli, 2022), or at the wider cross-supply chain level – as with Aaltonen and Turkulainen (2022).…”

“…Each of these papers highlights limitations in their particular research as being related to the context specificity/homogeneity or the context of the level of analysis and hence future consideration of the adjacent contexts or levels. Aaltonen and Turkulainen (2022), for instance, having looked at institutional levels, suggest future consideration of national contexts or industry contexts in affecting the dissemination of good practice in collaborative working. They also suggest looking into other forms of project governance models and the role of organisational values in potentially shifting industries away from traditionally adversarial ways of working.…”

“…Finally, Aaltonen and Turkulainen (2022)’s “ Institutionalization of a collaborative governance model to deliver large, interorganizational projects ”, describes efforts to institutionalise interfirm collaborative practices in infrastructure projects, which typically have one-off relationships formed just to deliver that project. Establishing new practices at an institutional level are thus difficult, and so again the influence of heterogeneity can be seen.…”