| A growing concern of today's business executives is the increasing volatility of their organization's environment. In order to manage these turbulent environments, inter-firm collaborations are becoming more and more pervasive. A critical question, however, is "are such inter-organizational relationships working?" According to several researchers they are apparently not very successful. The purpose of this research is to develop a rigorous, comprehensive, well-grounded theoretical model describing inter-organizational logistics relationships (IOLRs). It began with the following research questions in mind: (1) How do IOLRs form? (2) How do strategic and non-strategic IOLRs differ? (3) Is the learning perspective more effective than existing ones, in describing and explaining IOLRs?; To answer these questions, more than 40 logistics professionals, at various levels---ranging from Directors to Managers and Supervisors---in 8 organizations were interviewed extensively and their responses were recorded, transcribed and carefully analyzed. Following an extremely rigorous analysis, a categorization of interorganizational logistics relationships (IOLRs) was developed and a Three Face Model describing IOLRs was presented.; "Face One" of the Three Face Model is formed between two dimensions: Designed-Evolutionary dimension (representing the nature of IOLR formation), and an Operational-Strategic dimension (representing the degree of criticality involved in each relationship). IOLRs emerging from the data were then "mapped" onto it. "Face Two" is formed between the Operational-Strategic and Individual-Organizational (representing the level at which IOLRs are managed) dimensions. Once again, the various IOLRs cited in the study were mapped onto it. Bringing these two faces together results in "Face Three"---formed between the Evolutionary-Designed and Individual-Organizational dimensions. IOLRs placing in the six cells formed on this face exhibited learning system characteristics developed by Shrivastava (1983) and orientations of DiBella et al. (1996). Characteristics of IOLRs placing in each cell were presented in detail, and several propositions for future research were developed. It was also shown how the Three Face Model can be utilized to organize and manage IOLRs more efficiently and effectively. |
