eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

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The objective of the thesis is to expand understanding on how geographically localized multi-organizational networks are formed and how the value creation in these networks takes place.

A multiple case study was conducted on two Finnish health and wellbeing campuses. These campuses are considered as localized multi-organizational networks that are observed through meta-organizational background. The previous research on meta-organizations is mainly concentrated on how these organizations are designed, why they exist and operate. And therefore, this study focusing on the formation and value creation processes contributes to new knowledge in this literature.

The study used qualitative research methods such as semi-structured interviews and manual coding in the gathering and analysis of data. The analyzed data set was in total 29 different interviews and significant amount of other data such as presentations, meeting minutes and histories. The thesis presents six key findings related to the formation and development of multi-organizational networks as well as analyzing how and where the value creation takes place in the campus context. The six key findings fall into six distinct themes: the role of the architect, membership criteria, collaborative events, system-level goal, integrators and transition of key actors. In regard to emergence of the network and value creation, the findings emphasized the role of architect and system-level goal in the emergence of these networks. Furthermore, the findings suggest that preserving strong system-level goal requires both membership criteria for amongst new members and active communication between old members in order to avoid disruption of the overall concept. Transition of key actors had profound effect on the dynamics of meta-organization. In the process of creating value through meta-organizational context, concrete dyadic and multi-organizational relationships are important for enhanced the value creation: value can and should be created through collaboration (co-sharing, co-developing and co-marketing) between organizations. The overall brand image of the meta-organization was considered valuable especially with public actors.

Based on the empirical study, the formation of such networks will need a strong vision or system-level goal, which should be shared amongst the members. In addition, the role of meta-organization architect is inevitable in facilitating and coordinating activities that are keeping the network functioning. Furthermore, the value can be create through collaboration between organizations inside meta-organization by sharing resources, facilities, creating joint services or integrating marketing efforts in order to attract and serve customers better than before. Multi-organizational collaboration can also be traced to better business performance and more efficient use of resources. The findings from the case study suggest that a more comprehensive cross-industrial case study from different geographical and industrial sectors could be seen beneficial in order to provide more generalized results.