The Academy of Management Journal has published the article "Interorganizational Relationships as Political Battlefields" by Professor Dr. Dries Faems of WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management in its current issue (online since November 2, 2020). Faems did research on this case study together with his co-author Anna Brattström from Lund University in Sweden. The Academy of Management Journal is one of the most renowned journals worldwide in this research area.
The researchers provide findings on how tensions within organizations can transform external partnerships into internal political battlefields. They found that the internal fragmentation of an organization has a major impact on the evolution of relational characteristics in interorganizational relationships. It was shown that the existence of different belief systems within one partner organization can lead to a politically charged process, wherein different coalitions within this organization frame and act upon interorganizational events in different ways. The findings of Faems and Brattström contribute to research by advocating a political perspective on interorganizational relationships. Until now, research in this area has focused primarily on the effects of differences between two partner organizations.