Inter-organizational conflicts: Research overview, challenges, and opportunities. (March 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lumineau, Fabrice; Eckerd, Stephanie; Handley, Sean
• Is Part Of: Journal of strategic contracting and negotiation. Volume 1:Number 1(2015:Mar.)
• Page Start: 42
• Page End: 64
• Publication Date: 2015-03
• Subjects: Inter-organizational relationships -- conflict -- review -- research agenda; Negotiation in business -- Periodicals; Management contracts -- Periodicals; Commercial documents -- Periodicals; 658.72305
• DOI: 10.1177/2055563614568493
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2055-5636

Abstract

While inter-personal conflicts have attracted much attention from scholars and practitioners over the last two decades, our understanding of inter-organizational conflicts remains limited. This paper critically assesses current literature on inter-organizational conflicts. We first discuss the specific features of conflicts at the inter-organizational level. Second, we provide an overview of both qualitative and quantitative research conducted in the field. Third, we make suggestions for future research on inter-organizational conflicts. We specifically suggest opportunities to develop theoretical bridges with other streams of literature and to build multi-level models of conflict management. We then discuss important empirical issues associated with doing research on conflicts between organizations and provide recommendations to overcome these challenges.