It’s not about the maestro: a case of orchestration failure in an interorganizational network

Orchestrated networks represent one type of well-studied interorganizational networks where a central organization carries the burden of developing the network and making sure it reaches the desired outcomes. Through a qualitative case study in the tourism field, we enlighten how in such a process the orchestrator balances different pressures and dynamics coming from the other network members interacting at two different levels, the political and the operative ones. We explain the final negative outcome as the orchestrator failed to acknowledge (i) the multi-layered network structure, and (ii) the misalignment of actors’ belonging to the two levels of interaction (the operative and the political one). Our paper therefore represents one of the first empirical cases of orchestration failure and allows us to advance extant theory of orchestration by proposing a multi-level and pluralistic vision of such a process.