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  • Academy of Management Journal

'Matter Battles': Cognitive Representations, Boundary Objects, and the Failure of Collaboration in Two Smart Cities

By: Tiona Zuzul
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Abstract

In this paper, I present a longitudinal study of two smart city projects that brought together experts from diverse knowledge domains. Both projects structured collaboration around the development of boundary objects that could integrate actors’ expertise. In both projects, however, the objects sparked conflicts that exacerbated rather than attenuated differences. I develop a process model exploring how and why the development of boundary objects can manifest as divisive conflict that derails collaboration. In both projects, extreme novelty gave rise to concept ambiguity, a lack of shared ideas about what smart cities were, and process ambiguity, a lack of shared ideas about how smart cities should be developed. Ambiguity led actors from diverse domains to form divergent cognitive representations about smart cities. As they developed boundary objects, actors made decisions that violated some cognitive representations, while reifying others into material outcomes. Their efforts to develop the objects manifest as matter battles: high-stakes conflicts about material outcomes that, over time, set the stage for collaboration failure. In advancing these ideas, I provide an alternative perspective to the literature on collaboration across boundaries, which has primarily treated boundary objects as tools of integration rather than weapons of division.

Keywords

Smart Cities; Interpersonal Conflict; Boundary Objects; Cooperation; Failure

Citation

Zuzul, Tiona. "'Matter Battles': Cognitive Representations, Boundary Objects, and the Failure of Collaboration in Two Smart Cities." Academy of Management Journal 62, no. 3 (June 2019): 739–764.
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About The Author

Tiona W. Zuzul

Strategy
→More Publications

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More from the Author
  • How Do You Keep Winning? Strategy Across Technological and Industry Lifecycles By: Tiona Zuzul
  • The Globalization of Manchester City Football Group By: Maria P. Roche, Tiona Zuzul, Exequiel Hernandez and Amy Klopfenstein
  • Dynamic Silos: Increased Modularity in Intra-organizational Communication Networks during the Covid-19 Pandemic By: Tiona Zuzul, Emily Cox Pahnke, Jonathan Larson, Patrick Bourke, Nicholas Caurvina, Neha Parikh Shah, Youngser Park, Joshua Vogelstein, Christopher White and Carey E. Priebe
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