The Systematic Mapping of Inter-organizational Strategic Relationship Studies: A Modern Business Administration Approach

Despite the importance of inter-organizational strategic relationships in reaching new sources of innovation and knowledge in modern business administration, this concept was unknown up to the 1980s and has become far more dominant in the last twenty years. The primary purpose of the present research is to provide a summation of the current literature that has studied the process and role of strategic relationships among organizations. This study used a systematic mapping review; and analyzed 93 high-quality peer-reviewed scholarly papers from several aspects. To analyze the articles, a categorized scheme was developed. The papers have been analyzed based on their type of relation, publication features, and research methodology. These aspects can help future readers comprehensively understand the nature of inter-organizational strategic relationships. Managerial implications have been provided besides a discussion of the study's findings.