High failure rates often observed in practice suggest that interorganizational collaborative relationships, e.g. strategic alliances, collaborative networks and collaborative supply chains, are still not well understood. This work contributes to their understanding by focusing on their nature. Based on second-order cybernetics and social systems theory, a novel model of interorganizational collaborative relationships is proposed: the Collaborative System. This model explains the following: the organizational function of these relationships; their nature and structure; their emergence and evolution; and the high failure rates observed in practice. Obeying the requirements of a good theory, the proposed model sheds new light on the understanding, research and practice of collaboration.

Donald Neumann has a master’s degree in Production Engineering and Systems from the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná, Brazil. After finishing his studies he worked with collaboration and supply chain management for a Brazilian company. In 2008 he started to work as a doctoral researcher at the Graduate School of Excellence advanced Manufacturing Engineering, University of Stuttgart. Since 2011 he signs the column in the Brazilian Logistics and Supply Chain magazine .

Contents Interorganizational Collaborative Relationships – Collaborative Interactions – Collaborative Systems – Collaboration – Hybrid Governance Forms – Game Theory – Principal-Agent Theory – Supply Chain Management – Collaborative Networks – Network Theory – Strategic Alliances – Cybernetics – Second-Order Cybernetics – Systems Theory – Social Systems Theory. Inhaltsverzeichnis