Navigating International Collaborations: A Systematic Exploration of Underlying Pitfalls and Complexities

Scholarly interest on the dark side of international interorganizational relationships has seen an upward trend in recent years. Nevertheless, there is no systematic review of literature on the dark side of international interorganizational relationship. Realizing this gap, this study adopted Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) to distinguish, analyze and synthesize 96 articles published in peer-reviewed journals with respect to theoretical foundation, data analysis approach, relationship characteristics and direct and indirect relationships. The findings show that significant progress has been made between 1993 and 2022 with opportunism and conflict as the most frequent manifestations of the dark side. The specific characteristics of the findings include rigorous theoretical foundation, research design that heavily focus on formalized approach, tendency to employ large sample size and propensity toward topics about behavioral dimensions and relationship characteristics. This comprehensive review addresses specific concerns and offers suggestions for future research.