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Abstract: People work together for different reasons. Although it is easy to recognise the virtues of collaboration, it is known that collaboration also raises important challenges, especially when it is needed for innovation. The challenges of managing complex innovative projects include the need to cope with ambitious schedules, conflicts due to differences in cultures and practices, ambiguous roles, large amounts of information. The research is also unclear as to which organisational activities translate collaborative capacity into practice in specific circumstances. This article aims to deepen the understanding of the dimensions of collaborative capability in complex projects conducted by distributed multistakeholder teams so that firms can apply the knowledge in practice. It is based on a qualitative study of two project cases conducted by an international Canadian firm that provides innovative design and construction solutions for cultural and recreational venues. Four dimensions of the collaborative capability to conduct innovative projects are identified.
Keywords: Collaborative capability, multistakeholders, distributed team, projects, collaboration, innovation
1 Introduction
Researchers have long investigated collaboration. In the 1960s, Thompson (1967) addressed the management of interdependencies within organisations. Later in the 1980s, Gray (1989) identified influential factors for collaboration (e.g., stakeholder commitment, managerial support) as well as some challenges (e.g., harmonising stakeholders' interests, managing resistance to power sharing). Over the years, collaboration has been defined variously. Some authors view collaboration as a tool that enables organisations to outdo the competition by accessing outside resources, knowledge, and competencies (Dyer and Singh, 1998; Kale et al., 2002). Others see it as a facilitating mechanism when a network of distributed teams engages in common activities and share resources, know-how, services, and tools (Bourgault et al., 2008). Overall, most authors would recognize collaboration as an essential ingredient in complex firm systems. It is therefore important for firms to develop the capabilities to manage this kind of complex collaboration.
With respect to collaborative capabilities, Schreiner and Corsten (2004) state that most studies have focused on how experience and organisational learning mechanisms impact the capability to manage collaborative relationships. These authors acknowledge that few studies have examined the dimensions of a capability construct for the management of collaborative relationships. We therefore consider and analyse the concept of collaborative capability, based on the following research question: What are the...