From Animosity to Affinity: The Interplay of Competing Logics and Interdependence in Cross‐Sector Partnerships

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12273
• Author: Alireza Ahmadsimab,Jonatan Pinkse,Naeem Ashraf
• Published date: 01 September 2017
• Date: 01 September 2017

From Animosity to Affinity: The Interplay of

Competing Logics and Interdependence in

Cross-Sector Partnerships

Naeem Ashraf, Alireza Ahmadsimab and Jonatan Pinkse

Lahore University of Management Sciences and Montpellier Business School; Saint Mary’s University;

University of Manchester

ABSTRACT Drawing on and extending institutional logics and resource dependence theories,

this paper posits that for cross-sector partnerships to survive, organizations need to share

compatible institutional logics, but depend less on each other’s resources. Asymmetrical cross-

sector partnerships may lead to a breakup if organizations are forced to operate under

incompatible institutional logics. The findings of this study show that the challenges posed by

incompatible logics of partners could be mitigated by the degree of resource interdependence

between organizations. Capturing the effects of context and transactions on the actors’

strategic behaviour, the findings, based on a dataset of project-level partnership ties between

1312 organizations in the carbon-offset market, support these hypotheses. The paper

concludes by discussing implications of organizations’ responses to keep acting under or

reinterpreting existing institutional logics in asymmetrical cross-sector relationships.

Keywords: cross-sector partnerships, resource dependence, non-profit organizations

institutional complexity, carbon market

INTRODUCTION

Organizations are increasingly partnering across sectors to solve various societal and

environmental problems such as health, education, environmental degradation, climate

change, and poverty alleviation (Selsky and Parker, 2005; Teegen et al., 2004; Yaziji

and Doh, 2009). Cross-sector partnerships are initiatives where organizations from dif-

ferent sectors, i.e., for-profit and non-profit sectors, enter into a collaboration to achieve

a common objective (Selsky and Parker, 2005). When resources in one sector are insuffi-

cient to solve these problems, a cross-sector partnership may be a viable option (Austin

and Seitanidi, 2012; Kivleniece and Quelin, 2012). However, cross-sector partnerships

Address for reprints: Jonatan Pinkse, Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Booth

Street West, Manchester M15 6PB, UK (jonatan.pinkse@manchester.ac.uk).

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C2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies

Journal of Management Studies 54:6 September 2017

doi: 10.1111/joms.12273

have often led to conflict-laden relationships and are frequently susceptible to failure

(Prashant and Harbir, 2009; Selsky and Parker, 2005).

Research examining difficulties in the maintenance of cross-sector partnerships has

identified several factors that influence the survival of partnerships, including the fre-

quency of contact between partners, the organizations’ level of commitment to socially

responsible behaviour, and the existence of a personalized, reciprocal bond between

organizations (Drumwright et al., 2004; Le Ber and Branzei, 2010). Such partnerships

also face problems similar to those of alliances between firms, such as opportunistic

behaviour of partners, poor communication and coordination, and differences in man-

agement structures (Park and Ungson, 2001). Nonetheless, we still know relatively little

about the determinants of failure that are more specific to cross-sector partnerships. In

this paper, we argue that a distinctive source of failure of cross-sector partnerships is

associated with how compatible the partners are regarding their cultural backgrounds

and the objectives they seek. Organizations in cross-sector partnerships usually pursue

different and potentially conflicting objectives (Austin, 2000). The different objectives

that cross-sector partners pursue are not only a result of organizational-level decisions,

but also of broader cultural templates, or institutional logics, which infuse organizations

with specific values (Thornton et al., 2012). That is, ‘organizational members, by being

part of social and occupational groups, enact, within organizations, broader institutional

logics that define what actors understand to be the appropriate goals, as well as the

appropriate means to achieve these goals’ (Pache and Santos, 2010, p. 459).

We propose that employing the institutional logics perspective will shed light on fac-

tors that might undermine the survival of cross-sector partnerships. Institutional logics

have been defined as ‘socially constructed, historical patterns of material practices,

assumptions, values, beliefs, and rules by which individuals produce and reproduce their

material subsistence, organize time and space, and provide meaning to their social real-

ity’ (Thornton and Ocasio, 1999, p. 804). Cross-sector partnerships bring together

organizations that are embedded in multiple, often competing and overlapping institu-

tional logics – a situation referred to as institutional complexity (Greenwood et al.,

2011). An excessive rivalry between institutional logics can cause conflict and instability;

however, few studies have examined the impact of incompatible institutional logics on

the survival of cross-sector partnerships (Vurro et al., 2010).

While cross-sector partnerships might suffer from an incompatibility of logics, we

argue that a sole focus on this incompatibility does not provide the full picture in

explaining partnership survival. Partnerships tend to be initiated from a need to

exchange critical resources to tackle societal and environmental problems (Austin and

Seitanidi, 2012). The need to acquire resources has a solid footing in the inter-

organizational relationship literature (Casciaro and Piskorski, 2005; Pfeffer and Salan-

cik, 1978). Studies have explored the role of interdependence and its influence on inter-

organizational partnership dynamics (Beckman et al., 2004; Oliver, 1991; Prashant and

Harbir, 2009). Since different organizations in a partnership share resources and

depend on each other, they have the interest to continue the partnership even if they

face obstacles (Gulati and Sytch, 2007; Wry et al., 2013). This interdependence raises

the issue of how organizations in a cross-sector partnership deal with the tension

between the need to exchange resources, on the one hand, and cooperate with

794 N. Ashraf et al.

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C2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies