Accounts of interest and strategies of inter-organizational projects : towards integrative collaboration in the Dutch shipbuilding industry

Industries are working more and more in project-based settings. In addition, these projects increasingly involve several organizations. Essential in these multi-organizational projects is collaboration. The temporality and changing composition of representatives from companies complicates collaboration between these individuals and their companies in multi-organizational projects. Due to the multiple companies and individual representatives involved in a project it is difficult to keep goals and interests aligned. Important in collaboration is how these representatives perceive their interests. Rational choice theories assume that these interest motivations are given and neglect the social nature of interest conceptions. Therefore, this dissertation explores the social construction process of interests in relation to collaboration. This dissertation is interested in how collaboration is shaped by the social construction processes of interests of individuals and strategies of companies working in a multi-organizational setting. Building on qualitative data obtained in the shipbuilding industry, this dissertation presents five essays that aim to advance our understanding of social construction processes of interests. Additionally, this dissertation provides insights into the relationship between strategies of companies and collaboration in a project. An important contribution of this dissertation is that some mechanisms of social construction of interests are identified.