Why should we collaborate? Exploring partners' interactions in the psychosocial spaces of an inter-organisational collaboration

- The concept of psychosocial space is introduced for the study of IOCs.
- IOCs are defined as interactive spaces shaped by the collaborative and independent activity embedded within them.
- Collaborative and independent actions emerge in IOCs through identity interplays.
- Identity interplay in IOCs should not be resolved for the achievement of collaborative identity.

The study explores the interplay between collaborative and independent action in inter-organisational collaborations (IOCs). Towards this aim, the research suggests the use of psychosocial spaces as an innovative perspective that allows exploring how collaborative and non-collaborative actions unfold, as partners (re)identify themselves in relation to the changing needs of the collaboration. Following a qualitative longitudinal study, the paper contributes the concept of psychosocial space as a distinctive approach to examine IOCs. In this way, the study offers an alternative way to perceive IOCs as interactive spaces characterised and transformed by the collaborative and independent activity embedded within them. It also proposes that collaborative and independent actions emerge in IOCs through identity development processes. Finally, the research suggests that identity interactions in IOCs are not a burden in need to be resolved for the achievement of a common collaborative identity.