Strategy and Inter-organizational Power Theory

This symposium focuses on the role of inter-organizational power in strategy formation. Power relations between organizations have been foundational themes in strategy (Child, 1972; MacMillan, 1978; Mintzberg, 1983; Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978; Porter, 1980). Scholars and strategy practitioners alike have sought to understand how to position a company so as to gain and defend market power (Porter, 1980), how to prevail in disruptive innovation and change (Tushman & Anderson, 1986), how to deal with important resource-holders (e.g. Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978) and stakeholders (Freeman, 1984), how to influence or shape regulation and legislation (Keim & Zeithaml, 1986), how to settle inter-organizational conflicts (Helms, Oliver, & Webb, 2012), and how and when to compete or to collaborate with competitors (Ingram & Yue, 2008). In these and other situations, perspectives on inter-organizational politics and power - also referred to as "macro power" (Mintzberg et al., 2005) - are decisive for understanding and explaining organizational and inter-organizational outcomes.

The purpose of the symposium therefore is to present and to critically evaluate some of the major theoretical perspectives on inter-organizational power as applied to strategy and management.