Abstract:

The paper analyses how pre - entry routines, i.e. organizational ones, influence a firm’s propensity to enter inter-organizational collaborative relationships. The general question this paper addresses is how organizational routines and inter-organizational relationships interfere. Hence, the aim is to present a theoretical and methodological proposition, exploiting an evolutionary perspective and network approach, aiming to examine inter-dependencies between organizational routines and inter-organizational relationships. Strategic literature has devoted relatively limited attention to the organizational routines enabling firms to collaborate so as to achieve a fit over time and finally to survive in the overcrowded industry settings. We contribute to fill the research gap by exploring the routine approach. It allows investigating how firm’s routines are associated with the propensity to operate in inter-organizational context. Consequently, the following hypotheses have been formulated: (1) The higher the level of routineness, the lower the propensity to collaborate; (2) Propensity to collaborate is positively related to organizational performance; (3) Environmental dynamics and environmental uncertainty moderate positively the relationship between routineness and propensity to collaborate; (4) Managerial execution-oriented performance moderates negatively the relationship between routineness and propensity to collaborate, (5) Managerial innovation-oriented performance moderates positively the relationship between routineness and propensity to collaborate; (6) External orientation positively moderates the relationship between routineness and propensity to collaborate; and (7) Internal orientation negatively moderates the relationship between routineness and propensity to collaborate. Key Words: Organizational Routines Inter-Firm Collaboration, Evolutionary and Network Approach.

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