Strategic Study of the Inter-Organizational Relationship and Cooperation of the Industrial and Service Activities

This paper studies the inter-organizational relationships in a geographical area. A review of the scientific resources in different fields expresses the increasing significance of the inter-organizational relationship. New developmental approaches emphasize the role of the inter-organizational relationship strategy to manage complicated and competitive modern environment and, also, to address the organization’s objectives and interests. This paper seeks to study the inter-organizational relationship between similar and dissimilar units. The study also analyzes the role of the organization’s culture and record on the relationship and recognizing the “strategy” to create or reinforce the relationship. Theoretical framework is constituted of the six paradigms of inter-organizational relationship, theories of its relation with culture and record, and strategic model of SWOT. Nine questions are developed. To answer the questions, 32 organizations are studied by qualitative methods, including interview and SWOT model. Results show that there are many relationships among the 32 studied organizations. The relationships are more apparent between organizations with dissimilar activity, including service and industry spheres. Few relationships were also observed between similar organizations (mostly industrial organizations). The direct influence of culture (education) and record on the inter-organizational relationship is confirmed. Although there is a vast range of relationship, the findings indicate that there are still many potentials to increase or reinforce inter-organizational relationships. Using the model of SWOT, a strategy for enforcing the inter-organizational relationship and cooperation is introduced.