A collaborative path to sustainability

managing cross-sector collaborations to solve social and ecological challenges

verfasst von

Marit Christine Elisabeth Grewe-Salfeld

betreut von

Christiana Weber

Abstract

Rising inequality, debilitating global health crises, escalating civil conflicts and wars, ever-pressing natural disasters driven by climate change, and economic systems fueled by unsustainable overproduction challenge contemporary society. These large unresolved social and ecological challenges, now often referred to as grand challenges, impact society across sectoral and geographical borders. They are characterized by inherent conflicts arising from differing stakeholder perspectives on their causes and solutions. Organizations are considered central to both the creation and resolution of these grand challenges. However, standardized organizational solutions have proven insufficient, underscoring the need for new forms of organizing. Collaborative approaches are considered more effective due to their ability to integrate partners' resources and competencies. This cumulative dissertation explores the intricacies of complex cross-sector collaborations aiming to understand how they must be implemented and managed to solve social and ecological challenges. It provides contributions across multiple levels of analysis and integrates diverse theoretical perspectives. The first article uses a bibliometric approach to identify key gaps in understanding micro-level interactions, the complexities they generate, and theorizes coping strategies from the perspective of institutional theory. Using practice-driven institutionalism, the second manuscript adopts a qualitative multi-case approach to identify three sets of partnership practices: embracing, orchestrating, and opposing complexity. Based on the empirical findings, it proposes a model of cyclical dynamics in partnerships, emphasizing a participatory approach to balance collaboration motivation and fatigue. The third manuscript examines three multi-stakeholder partnerships in the textile industry with a longitudinal perspective, providing unique insights into the development and interplay of governance architecture elements, such as structures and processes. Grounded in rich case narratives, it introduces a conceptual model linking actor compatibility and governance choices to partnership capacity through three mechanisms: transparency, neutrality, and interaction. The empirical chapters are complemented by a synthesis chapter, which integrates core findings and relates them to critical themes such as the significance of power dynamics, the roles of central actors, and the emergence of grand challenges. The dissertation concludes by summarizing its overall contributions to the field of organization and management research, identifying avenues for future study, and proposing actionable pathways toward a sustainable future.

Organisationseinheit(en)

Institut für Strategische Unternehmensführung und Organisation

Typ

Dissertation

Anzahl der Seiten

175

Publikationsdatum

29.01.2025

Publikationsstatus

Veröffentlicht

Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung

SDG 10 – Weniger Ungleichheiten, SDG 13 – Klimaschutzmaßnahmen, SDG 16 – Frieden, Gerechtigkeit und starke Institutionen

Elektronische Version(en)

https://doi.org/10.15488/18235 (Zugang: Offen)