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Aiming for Collaborative Advantage: Challenging the Concept of Shared Vision

This paper problematizes the process of developing and agreeing on aims in inter-organizational collaboration. We observe that real collaboration aims exist, if at all, in an entanglement of other aims both real and imagined. Aims that shape collaborative efforts derive from both members and external stakeholders and can be variously characterized as genuine and pseudo, explicit, unstated and hidden, substantive and processual, collaboration dependent and collaboration independent. The interplay between these aims seriously challenge the achievement of sustainable agreement about collaborative purpose, so commonly argued to be essential if partners are to work effectively together. We develop an aims framework which can help in getting to grips with the aspirations of parties involved in collaborations, assess the extent to which collaborative efforts are productive and provide vital cues about how to manage aims towards the achievement of collaborative advantage.