The Dark Side of Interorganizational Relationships: An Integrative Review and Research Agenda

The dark side of interorganizational relationships has received increasing attention across different disciplines of management (e.g., strategy, marketing, and supply chain management). We first identify and synthetize the concept of the “dark side” at the interorganizational level and its manifestations (e.g., conflict, opportunism, and unethical behaviors). We then carry out an integrative review on the antecedents, consequences, and moderating factors of the dark side’s manifestations. Furthermore, aiming to promote cross-fertilization between research streams, we set out a research agenda to extend the literature on the dark side of interorganizational relationships in four interrelated domains: manifestation characteristics; entities and their motivations; temporality; and positive outcomes of dark side manifestations (i.e., the bright side of the dark side).