Tackling grand societal challenges with digital temporary organizing : emerging collaboration and innovation dynamics

Abstract

Global, highly complex, and characterized by significant uncertainty, grand societal challenges (GSCs) pose significant threats to individuals, organizations, networks, and society as a whole. Driven by recent crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical insecurity, the accelerated pace of digitalization and digital transformation has affected inter-organizational collaboration and provoked the emergence of new digital processes in temporary organizing that have not yet been researched in sufficient depth. Although the widespread adoption of digital technologies and platforms has enabled new opportunities, there are also challenges. Thus, the main objective of this dissertation is to understand how the dynamics of inter-organizational collaboration have evolved in digital forms of temporary organizing and what processes shape innovative responses to GSCs.

This work builds on a multimethod research design, using longitudinal process research, action research, digital ethnography, and bibliometric literature review approaches. The key findings demonstrate how the speed of digitalization and digital transformation facilitates the development of digital and collaborative innovation and how at the same time it widens societal divides. This research also shows how different contexts of GSCs enable experimentation with the digital forms and processes of temporary organizing. Through the meta-synthesis of research findings across four publications, the dissertation offers several contributions. The studied inter-organizational collaboration dynamics reveal four patterns, outlining shifts in the geographical scale, space, and scope of collaboration. This research also introduces the new concept of collaboration divide and shows how regional resilience can be strengthened through digital, collaborative, and innovative practices. Among innovative responses to GSCs, this research presents the digital process of international opportunity (IO) creation and contributes to the literature on large-scale collaborative action with the practices and strategies of digital emergent organizing and coordination. Furthermore, this study highlights the dynamics of digital innovation (DI), contributing with an intellectual, conceptual, and social network structure, and outlines managerial problems and a future research agenda. Methodologically, this dissertation contributes with insights into conducting impactful research. The practical implications are presented as strategic recommendations for policymakers, managers, and crisis response groups.