Inter-organisational relationships for social impact: A systematic literature review

Abstract

The social impact of inter-organisational relationships is a growing area of business research. This study is the first to aggregate the current body of scholarly literature on how different inter-organisational relationships are utilised to create social impact. Using systematic literature procedures, 55 relevant studies published in leading scholarly journals were identified and analysed. The findings indicate that inter-organisational relationships for social impact is an emerging and multidisciplinary field. Eight categories of social impact were identified through thematic analysis, three at the macro level (economic development, social development and political and legal development), two at the mezzo level (community development and social development of supply chain stakeholders) and three at the micro level (creation of vulnerabilities, labour practices and entrepreneurship development). Based on our findings, we provide a synthesis of the relevant body of literature and identify potential areas for future research.