Collaborating Across Organizational Boundaries to Co-Create a More Just, Resilient, and Thriving Society

Abstract

In this editorial for our special issue on interorganizational collaboration (IOC), we position collaborative action in the context of the concurrent global crises that necessitate the bridging of interests, positions, competencies, and resources. We unpack the notion of IOC in terms of its conditions, phases, practices, and dynamics, and provide an overview of how the contributing authors support such understanding of cross-boundary collaboration. Through their action-oriented approaches to research and learning, they show a promising interplay of insight and impact. We underline their search for impact and aim to reinforce the potential of IOC not just to be successful, but also highly meaningful to address grand challenges. We therefore take a normative stance and describe how the intertwined notions of justice, resilience, and thriving can serve as a compass to legitimize, organize, facilitate, assess, and study IOC as an important pathway for the co-creation of a better world.