Abstract
The governance of inter-organizational projects (IOPs) that deliver grand challenges is composed of agents (e.g., programme managers) and structures (e.g., Integrated Project teams IPTs, governance boards). This study uncovers the reconfiguration process of IOPs governance and explains why IOPs governance evolves into a new baseline. Building on practice perspective and leveraging a longitudinal ethnographic research design, we study the dynamics and movements of agents and structures. We find that reconfiguration is an exceptional, ad-hoc practice, mobilized to ensure that IOPs governance is fit for purpose. First, our findings trace governance reconfiguration to changes in board effectiveness and IPTs task performance. Second, we report on the dynamics among agents and structures in a bidirectional model that leads to the enactment of reconfiguration. Third, reconfiguration ends when frequent changes in board effectiveness and IPTs task performance are realigned, resulting in a new governance baseline.