Partnering is notoriously difficult; success rates as low as 20 per cent are often quoted. So, is success achievable or are the benefits to be gained from partnering just a myth? What does 'success' mean in partnerships, alliances and other collaborative ventures? The answer might not be as...

Within the general context of the theory of collaborative advantage, this article focuses on attitudes to inter-partner learning in both private and public sector settings. Basic attitudes to learning - quot;selfishquot;, quot;sharingquot; and quot;sidelinedquot; - are identified and through a...

We approached the considerable body of literature on learning in collaborative situations in order to explore the possibility of pulling the separate strands into a broad conceptual framework which might offer new insights. The literature focus in the framework was deliberately upon the...

In this article we address a key tension in the literature. That is, whether the knowledge status of a tradition is largely preserved passively, under tradition’s own authority, or alternatively preserved through deliberate, individual interpretive acts. Through empirical research in three...

In the complex, usually problematic situation of interorganizational collaboration the need for managerial learning in the pursuit of collaborative advantage is high. Two particular characterizations of learning, in relation to interorganizational collaboration, are well described in the extant...

Leadership research so far has neglected clusters as a particular context for leadership, while research on networks and clusters has hardly studied leadership issues. This paper fills this dual gap in the abundant research on leadership on the one hand and on networks/clusters on the other by...

In this article we consider the nature and implications of barriers to collaborative process learning that may occur in regional clusters. Our approach is rooted in research in interorganizational collaboration and focuses on interview-based research in photonics clusters in: Scotland and the...

The practice of inviting managers and leaders to make formal presentations telling the story of their experience to others is widespread. In this paper we explore these as one manifestation of the transfer of management practices. We include among those considered, a range of speakers from high...

This paper problematizes the process of developing and agreeing on aims in inter-organizational collaboration. We observe that real collaboration aims exist, if at all, in an entanglement of other aims both real and imagined. Aims that shape collaborative efforts derive from both members and...

The negotiation and agreement of goals for collaborations between public and non-profit organizations is argued to be a complex and painful process. Thus, the research described in this paper used action research to explore some of the critical behaviours in such groups. Based on the two units...