In order to face the urgent societal and ecological - often wicked - problems of our time and to address the economic challenges that result from the increasingly complex, vola-tile, and uncertain environment in which (economic) organisations operate, nowadays inter-organisational relationships are a pivot for organisations’ strategizing. The result is a highly interconnected world in which inter-organisational collaboration (IOC) plays a decisive role at the business management, economic, and societal levels. However, IOC projects still pose one of the most demanding - and unresolved - challenges for management and the attainment of a successful project outcome. This is due to the highly complex and heterogeneous nature of the phenomenon of IOC itself which ultimately is not just a business, but also a social activity. To better cope with IOC projects and their challenges in different business contexts, a better understanding and consideration of this complexity and heterogeneity in research and practice is requisite. With this motivation, this research aims to take and promote an IOC-context-sensitive, holistic approach to IOC through consideration of its heterogeneity to provide an improved baseline for successful IOC, especially in frontier pushing high-technology innovation (FPHTI) projects. A tripartite, multi-scale design science research (DSR) ap-proach is chosen in which a system theoretical perspective is taken to holistically model and approach specific IOC-contexts with a special focus on (inter-)relational aspects. In the first research step, the specific IOC-context for FPHTI projects as an application domain is theoretically explored by literature analysis. Empirical data on how IOC may be managed and conducted in practice is gathered and analysed in a qualitative case study at 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) in the second research step. On this basis, in the third research step, a method for the IOC-context-sensitive development of IOC-settings - the LD²M - is developed as a design artefact of the DSR, which is also used to fuse the research findings to draw conclusions concerning IOC in FPHTI projects. This research project combines the highly interconnected streams of multi-actor innovation and IOC (management) research. A contribution to close the research gap concerning how IOC is concretely conducted in practice is bridged by the case study findings. With the LD²M, a prototype for the design of tailored IOC-settings, which are harmonized with the specifics of an IOC project, is introduced, which in addition provides innovative impulses for both IOC practice and research: It is encouraged to face - and not antagonize - the heterogeneity and uniqueness of IOC projects which is in this the-sis primarily attributed to the social dynamics within IOC projects and thus its actors, their incentives, and interaction. Both the concept of context-sensitive analogy reason-ing in the LD²M and the presentation and analysis of this research’s empirical findings represent a new approach to exploit existing empirical findings, knowledge, and experience in the field of IOC, namely in an context-sensitive, reflected way as source of in-spiration. With regard to research methodology, the LD²M expands the techniques in the field of IOC and at the same time the application domains of the adapted concepts of design thinking, the double diamond process, and lead user methodology.     «

In order to face the urgent societal and ecological - often wicked - problems of our time and to address the economic challenges that result from the increasingly complex, vola-tile, and uncertain environment in which (economic) organisations operate, nowadays inter-organisational relationships are a pivot for organisations’ strategizing. The result is a highly interconnected world in which inter-organisational collaboration (IOC) plays a decisive role at the business management, economic, and s...    »