Fishing in troubled waters? Strategic decision‐making and value creation and appropriation from partnerships between public organizations

Although partnerships have been conceptualized as vehicles for value creation, less is known about which partners appropriate more value out of them, especially among public organizations. We theorize how politics and procedural rationality in decision‐making respectively are associated with value creation and value appropriation from partnerships between public organizations. Analysis of data from the Dutch water authority sector (2008‐2014) shows that organizations employing more politics in decision‐making appropriate more value from horizontal partnerships, whereas procedural rationality in decision‐making may enhance combined value creation but limits partner‐level value appropriation. Also as theorized, the collective decision‐making context constrains value appropriation by partners using a discrepant decision‐making approach. We discuss implications for research on public organizations, alliances, and strategic decision‐making.