ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces an emerging research programme in International Relations (IR) that builds on a long tradition of scholarship in other disciplines. Interorganizationalism studies the structure and processes of Inter-Organizational Relations (IORs), i.e. the interaction of two or more organizations with overlapping geographic and functional domains (Biermann 2009b). It is primarily interested in the embeddedness of organizations within their environment. The starting point is a relational one which gives analytic primacy to the links between organizations. Inter-organizational relations vary strongly, particularly in the density of ties, the number of partners in a given configuration and the degree of institutionalization. They shape the role definitions of organizations and their identities.
