A Marketing Perspective on Temporary Organizations

The authors review recent conceptual and empirical research on temporary organizations in marketing. In particular, they review a series of articles that have examined temporary organizations using the theoretical lens of transaction cost economics and interfirm governance. Based on this research, they propose a conceptual framework for analyzing the governance mechanisms that are available to temporary organizations. The framework categorizes governance mechanisms on the basis of their content (formal vs. informal), and their underlying logic (design vs. activation). The article identifies future research questions and highlights methodological challenges and opportunities for research on temporary organizations.