Interoganizational cooperation amid uncertainty: the creative industries’ perspective

Uncertainty is not a novel issue in strategic management, hence one may notice that the modern world is becoming increasingly volatile and unpredictable. The literature points out that uncertainty and crises situations change not only the business environment and business implementation, but the effects of uncertainty also have an impact on interorganizational cooperation. This article focuses on exploring the significance of uncertainty stemming from a large-scale emergency situation (i.e. the COVID-19 pandemic) for the course of interorganizational cooperation (IC). The research was conducted in Poland within a group of 30 interviewees (in total 5 virtual FGIs) representing four creative industries. Our research shows that in conditions of uncertainty, interorganizational cooperation in creative industries still existed. However, very often cooperation had a completely different form, because three main elements changed: (1) IC partners, (2) opportunities to build social relationships underlying the establishment of IC, and (3) motives and goals of undertaking cooperation.