Formation and Enhancement of Collective Identity in the Leadership of Interorganizational Networks: A Theoretical Foundation

The concept of identity and its prominent role in shaping and stimulating individual, team, and organizational behavior has long been at the center of scholarly attention. However, its application within the domain of interorganizational network leadership remains relatively underexplored. The limited number of existing studies in this area have primarily emphasized the importance of identity in guiding the behavior of interorganizational networks, while paying comparatively less attention to the mechanisms through which identity is constructed. Accordingly, this study aims to provide a theoretical foundation that highlights the mechanisms underlying identity formation in the context of interorganizational network leadership. It does so by first categorizing key success factors into two broad groups—primary factors and emergent factors—and then proposing a more comprehensive framework that integrates these components. The discussion also addresses the challenges and risks associated with the formation of collective identity in interorganizational network leadership. Ultimately, the study underscores the need for organizational leaders to reconsider and transform their understanding of evolving concepts such as leadership, governance, power, identity, and knowledge in highly turbulent and volatile environments that characterize contemporary knowledge-based organizations, where agility and adaptability increasingly take precedence over stability and continuity.

کلیدواژه ها:

Proactivity ، collective identity ، Leadership ، Inter-Organizational Network