Navigating the business-society paradox in interorganizational collaboration: Emergence and mitigation of vicious cycles

Interorganizational collaborations can help address societal challenges, yet often present contradictory demands to the actors involved, which can place constraints on the collaboration or even lead to its premature failure. We investigate how and why pathways to failure emerge or can be prevented by drawing on paradox theory with a practice perspective. In a multiple case study of four interorganizational collaborations aimed at developing livable cities, we analyze how actors navigate the business–society paradox and deal with emerging vicious cycles that can paralyze the collaboration. We show how vicious cycles emerge, become perpetuated, and can be mitigated. Interconnected practices that favor either a business- or societal-dominant orientation can lead to so-called slipping points. As practices are perpetuated, a tipping point is reached that makes the latent paradoxical tensions salient and leads to collaboration fracture. Our findings show that such fractures can act as a wake-up call rather than a complete breakdown: they can enable actors to mitigate tensions and explore new opportunities for paradox navigation. Our study provides insights for research on paradox theory and interorganizational collaborations.