| Abstract: | This research investigates how performance in Publicly Funded Innovation Networks (PFINs) is affected by the inter-organisational relationships in terms of alignment between network administration and participating organisations. Our findings from a longitudinal embedded case study of a PFIN in the Nordic maritime industry show two key insights. First, we identify three patterns of inter-organisational relationships: functional (alignment between the self-organised relationships by project partners and relationship requirements from network administration), dysfunctional (contradictions between the self-organised relationships by project partners and relationship requirements from network administration), and anarchic (self-organised relationships by project partners with a lack of direction or leadership). Second, we show that each of these patterns of inter-organisational relationships have different effects on performance factors. An unexpected emergent finding was the observation of sub-circles of functional relationships within projects of dysfunctional relationships aimed at circumventing the misaligned requirements of network administration. We propose a conceptual framework detailing the effects of these three relationship patterns on PFIN performance in terms of immediate and long-term effects. |
