The relationship between organized crime groups (OCGs) and firms is often misconceived as the former victimizing and capturing the latter. Some studies already offer glimpses that the relationships between firms and OCGs are more sophisticated and might advance into deliberate collaborative partnerships. Management research on OCG-firm partnerships remains sparse and disjointed, so existing studies struggle to form a coherent system of knowledge. To overcome this, we conducted a narrative literature review that maps out the available knowledge in a critical framework of inter-organizational relationships. The study first examines key emergent themes from the literature related to: (i) the characteristics and motivations of firms (deliberately and non) engaging with organized crime groups; (ii) the arrangements and governance of the relationships; and (iii) the business and institutional outcomes of the relationships. The study then develops an agenda for future research. Overall, the review complements evidence on firms victimized by organized crime, with a critical reconnaissance of interorganizational reasons and mechanisms that instead stimulate collaborative partnerships.
