Learning in imaginary organizations: creating interorganizational knowledge

Organizations are increasingly dependent on various forms of partnerships to develop and to perform. These organizational partnerships may become potential learning arenas, broadening the learning capacities of the alliances involved. Thus far, the literature on learning in organizations has chiefly been concerned with how traditional and integrated organizations learn. Consequently, a unit of analysis has not been developed to highlight how a collection of actors may learn and create value. To address this issue, I will discuss how “imaginary organizations” can provide an arena for actors to build knowledge on a joint basis. This type of partnership forms metasystems that integrate various partner organizations in order to share resources, pool competencies, and gain flexibility. As an empirical illustration, learning processes within the imaginary organization of Scandinavian PC Systems (SPCS) are described.