Interactive Self-Regulatory Theory for Sharing and Protecting in Interorganizational Collaborations

Abstract

Theorizing about the sharing-protecting tension has been mostly at the organizational level. We draw on advances in self-regulation theory and hot cognition microfoundations of organizational capabilities to articulate three capabilities that dyads of interacting individuals in interorganizational collaborations must possess to regulate the sharing-protecting tension. Besides the recursive influences within dyads, the three capabilities involve recursive multilevel influences between individuals and their home organizations. The interactive self-regulatory theory helps explain how interacting individuals are able to dynamically adjust their sharing and protecting behaviors to the complexity, emergence, and adaptation required in interorganizational collaborations.