Collaborative Network Capacity

Abstract

This article argues that collaborative network success is a function of having the necessary social, knowledge, and financial capital, and the capacity to manage that capital through collaborative governance and knowledge management. This theory is examined through a comparative case study of two early childhood/school readiness networks. The evidence suggests that both collaborative governance and knowledge management enable collaborative networks to use their resources wisely and that organizational commitment to the network, the role of data collection and sharing, and the challenges of information technology all bear further investigation as important components of collaborative network capacity.     

Designing Collaborative Governance Decision-Making in Search of a ‘Collaborative Advantage’

Collaborative governance institutions consisting of government and civil society actors often emerge to solve complex policy problems. Yet decades of research on collaborative governance has found that realizing the ‘collaborative advantage’ is often very difficult given the multitude of actors, organizations and interests to be managed. This article deploys a participant observation approach that also harnesses data from a natural experiment in collaborative governance for homelessness policy in Vancouver, Canada, to reveal the distinct collaborative advantage produced in terms of policy, using empirical decision data and counterfactual analysis. The data reveal that nearly 50 per cent of the policy decisions made in the collaborative institution would not be made in the alternative scenario of unilateral bureaucratic control. The collaborative advantage realized in this governance institution that is premised on horizontality, deliberation and diversity is the result of a series of small interventions and the strategic deployment of rules devised by the bureaucratic metagovernor in charge of steering the governance collaboration.     

The impact of innovation training on successful outcomes in public–private partnerships

Public–private partnerships (PPPs) are increasingly seen as a way of innovating the production and management of public services. However, the question of what drives innovation in partnerships has so far received only limited attention. Drawing on network governance and collaborative innovation literature, this article presents the findings from a survey among 260 Danish PPPs. The study shows that while innovation training has a significant effect on achieving innovation in PPPs, factors such as trust and institutional support only affect some innovation types. The findings demonstrate the importance of individual innovation skills and a differentiated understanding of innovation outcomes in PPPs.     

流域生态文明视角下多元主体协同治理体系研究

流域生态文明多元主体协同治理体系构建是一个极其重要的问题。传统流域生态文明治理以政府为主导,整体上存在治理主体单一的问题,政府协同、市场协同、社会协同及多元主体之间的协同均存在一定问题。构建流域多元主体协同治理体系,需要进一步协同好政府之间、政企之间以及政府、企业与公众之间的行为和利益。在治理体系构建和完善过程中需要关注和化解各主体之间的利益和冲突,同时还需要从法律、机制方面进行完善和引导,需要加强流域内部各主体利益分享和补偿机制的法律保障力度。     

Relationship governance mechanisms and collaborative performance: A relational life-cycle perspective

Governance mechanisms protect the investments involved in transactions and thereby facilitate and promote sustainable and cooperative relationships; however, the empirical results of prior research concerning the relationship between governance mechanisms and collaborative performance are inconsistent. Based on transaction cost economy (TCE) and social exchange theory (SET), a relational life-cycle framework that considers the dynamic evolution of collaborative relationships and re-examines the relationship between governance mechanisms and collaborative performance was developed in this study. Evidence from 124 manufacturers in Taiwan indicates that the effects of governance mechanisms on collaborative performance differ according to the current life-cycle phase. In the exploration phase, contractual control exerts a positive impact on cooperative performance. In the buildup and maturity phases, relational control remains positively associated with collaborative performance, whereas the impact of contractual control is insignificant. In the decline phase, both contractual control and relational control have an insignificant impact on collaborative performance. Herein, we discuss the implications of our empirical findings and their relevance to managers.     

Exploring resistance in collaborative forms of governance: Meaning negotiations and counter-narratives in a case from the Danish education sector

This paper addresses resistance in studies about collaborative forms of governance. Although the literature discusses collaborative challenges, issues related to resistance are largely unexplored and mostly regarded as destructive. However, we argue for understanding resistance more dynamically – as a co-constructive aspect of collaboration. Drawing on extant resistance studies, we combine concepts of meaning negotiation and counter-narrative to examine power-resistance relations in a case study of collaborative forms of governance in the Danish education sector. The findings elucidate how resistance complicates, yet also co-constructs collaboration in governance processes; discursive struggles over meanings of collaboration and a quality model invoke power-resistance relations that destabilize a dominant narrative and enable counter-narratives, which influence future collaborative processes. Hence, we suggest understanding resistance as a constitutive feature in collaborative forms of governance, rather than a destructive obstacle. This contributes with empirical and theoretical insights into the complex role of resistance in collaboration and governance processes.     

协同治理:黄河流域生态保护的实践路径

黄河流域生态保护和高质量发展是中国区域协调发展格局的重要组成部分,协同治理作为全面深化改革方法论的系统性、整体性、协同性核心逻辑之一,对于推动黄河流域生态保护和高质量发展具有重要意义。黄河流域各省(区)在协同推进黄河流域生态治理中开展了较多工作,但是仍然存在生态环境脆弱、流域治理碎片化及流域保护“多规不一”等问题。推进协同治理,主要包括流域治理模式的创新以及流域沟通和协调机制的创新,有助于推动黄河流域生态质量的提升。实践中应当加强顶层设计,推进协同监管,强化流域协商机制建设,完善流域治理体系,建立健全流域治理长效机制,从而提高黄河流域治理效能。     

Unsettling Neoliberal Rationalities: Engaged Ethnography and the Meanings of Responsibility in the Dominican Republic and Mexico

Neoliberal urban environmental governance is premised in part on the development of collaborative arrangements between state and non‐state actors through which residents in informal settlements are encouraged to participate in their own governance. The neoliberal rationality of participation is implemented through governmental techniques such as responsibilization, whereby residents are rendered responsible for provision of basic environmental services previously seen as the responsibility of government authorities. However, neoliberal urban governance is incomplete, fragmented and fractured, affording room for maneuvering and innovative social agency, whereby residents mimic, reinterpret, negotiate and contest neoliberal subject formations. In this article, we discuss how engaged scholarship can facilitate such alternative productions of neoliberal subjectivities through the development of ‘knowledge encounters'. We draw on cases of solid waste management and environmental risk governance in the informal settlements of Los Platanitos, Santo Domingo Norte, Dominican Republic, and Gaviotas Sur, Villahermosa, Mexico, to suggest that knowledge encounters facilitated through engaged ethnography furnish stages for alternative conceptions of responsibility, whereby residents negotiate neoliberal techniques of governance through diverse forms of acquiescence, reconfiguration and contestation.     

Relationship risk perception and determinants of the collaboration fluency of buyer–supplier relationships in public service procurement

Public service procurement effectiveness has been emphasized as a major challenge in recent years. Well-managed partnerships between buyers and suppliers are needed in this domain to achieve collaboration fluency and improve the effectiveness of procurement. The main objective of this study is to determine which issues managerial teams must emphasize when aiming to create a solid partnership based on pre-existing collaborative relationships. The originality of this study lies in the domain approached (public service procurement in social and healthcare services), as well as the variable it attempts to explain (collaboration fluency). The study investigates two major issues: firstly, how collaboration risk perception influences communication, trust, and the governance of a collaboration and, secondly, how these factors (communication, trust, and governance) affect collaboration fluency. The study is performed via a survey regarding the collaboration of the public sector with organizations from the private and third (non-profit) sectors within public service procurement. The empirical evidence was gathered with a structured online questionnaire that was sent to organizations from the private and third sectors that provide services in the social and healthcare domain. The results indicate that in collaborative relationships in public service procurement, the higher the perceived relationship risks are, the more positive effects they will have in terms of increasing trust, communication, and the quality of collaboration management. Furthermore, communication, governance, and administration have strong influences on collaboration fluency.     

Governing Cross-Sector,Inter-Organizational Collaborations

Abstract

This article addresses the governance of cross-sector, inter-organizational collaboration in the context of public administration and management. It conceptualizes the governance of collaborations in terms of structures and processes that enable actors to direct, coordinate and allocate resources for the collaboration as a whole and to account for its activities. It argues that the need to pay attention to considerations of ‘collaborative governance’ and ‘governing collaboration’ in cross-sector collaborations gives rise to a number of challenges and tensions that need to be addressed if the governance form is to be sustained and the collaboration is to yield advantage.     

The blind spots of collaborative innovation

In discussing some of the core claims of collaborative innovation, this article uses the notion of ‘blind spots’ in a double meaning. On the one hand, it points at some blind spots in the debate on collaborative innovation, i.e. potential weaknesses, risks, and unintended effects of public sector innovation strategies resting on principles of collaborative innovation. Second, the paper considers collaborative innovation as a counter-strategy against blind spots and attention biases of public organizations. Drawing on this perspective helps to critically discuss some of the key assumptions supporting the promise of collaborative innovation to deliver benefits critical for public governance.     

重大工程多元投资主体社会责任行为逻辑及网络化治理

在多元化融资模式下,重大工程项目的社会责任问题显得愈加重要,平衡参与各方利益、履行社会责任是项目成败的关键。本文通过分析多元化投资项目参与方社会责任风险表现形式,论述了参与主体社会责任具有行为异化和风险相互传导性特点,认为重大项目决策风险制度缺陷、法人责任制虚化、经营者短期行为、社会责任考评机制不完善等导致了参与主体社会责任缺失;分析了多元化投资项目参与主体社会责任行为动力与治理框架;阐述了多元化投资项目社会责任网络化治理特征。在此基础上提出了构建社会责任治理网络组织、实施网络化协同决策与区块链支撑的责任倒查制、开展社会责任尽职与治理绩效评价等网络化治理路径。     

Cultural Cooperation,Institution Building and Metropolitan Governance in Decentralizing Indonesia

The institutional turn in metropolitan governance has been influenced to a considerable degree by a rational choice approach, which views metropolitan governance as essentially created by local actors to reduce the transaction costs of inter‐jurisdictional public‐service provision. Another influential theoretical route follows a historical approach, which emphasizes the role of the state structure in producing formal institutions to enable governance at the regional level. Both approaches tend to be formalistic, simplistic and deterministic in nature, thus neglecting the dynamic interactions between the actors and their more informal, intangible, yet more basic, legitimate institutions, such as culture. This article examines the dynamic role of culture in metropolitan governance building in the context of decentralizing Indonesia. The analysis focuses on ‘best‐practice’ experiences of metropolitan cooperation in greater Yogyakarta, where three neighbouring local governments known as Kartamantul have collaboratively performed cross‐border infrastructure development to deal with the consequences of extended urbanization. We draw on sociological institutionalism to argue that building this metropolitan cooperation has its roots in the capacity of the actors to use and mobilize culture as a resource for collaborative action.     

The Role of Green Collaborative Strategies in Improving Environmental Sustainability in Supply Chains: Insights from a Case Study

This article aims to quantify to what extent collaborative strategies are more effective than internal or organization‐level actions to green supply chains. In this regard, the impact of decisions made at different stages of a supply chain in a product's carbon footprint is quantified. Organizational and product carbon footprints are calculated using the Compound Method Based on Financial Accounts (MC3). The results underline that concentrating reduction efforts in some stages of the supply chain is more effective than implementing individual actions by the participants. Collaboration among the participants is needed to decide what practices are implemented, at what stage they are needed and how they are to be implemented. This article adds to the literature on supply chains and sustainability. Previous research suggests that collaborative strategies have great potential for reducing the carbon footprint of products, while indicating the need for empirical research to support this statement. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Managing Cultural Diversity in Collaborations: A focus on management tensions

Abstract

This article explores the management of cultural diversity in public and not-for-profit collaborations spanning organizational, professional and national boundaries. Through the framing of a culture paradox, it identifies three interrelated tensions pertaining to the management of cultural diversity towards collaborative advantage. These tensions address: interactions between organizations within a collaboration; interactions between individual actors and their orientation towards the collaboration and their host organization; and the quantity and extent of cultural diversity within a collaboration. The culture paradox and its inherent management tensions provide theoretical and practical conceptualizations that are relevant to management and governance of collaboration.     

Rules of engagement

Collaborative research between universities and pharmaceutical companies is a form of public?–?private sector partnership that raises important issues of governance and research integrity. The article analyses this from a stakeholder perspective with particular reference to clinical trial collaborations. Constraints and pressures on universities involved in collaborative projects are identified, together with implications for research integrity. A stakeholder systems model is offered as a means of identifying and reconciling disparate stakeholder perspectives, and its organizational justice dimensions enable evaluation of perceptions of fairness in system operation. The article contends incorporation of stakeholder views on system rationale, process and evaluation can enhance effectiveness, social responsibility and stakeholder commitment.     

The Visibility of Trust: Exploring the connection between trust and interaction in a Dutch collaborative governance boardroom

Abstract

In multi-stakeholder collaboration settings, trust plays a significant role. We explore the connection between trust and interaction over time in a collaborative governance board. To this end, we conducted a case study of the board of a collaborative governance arrangement in professional education. The results include an increase in trust within the board as well as three changes in the interaction pattern during board meetings: more openness, more responsiveness and more speed. It is argued that the increase in trust and the changes in interaction are related, implying that trust is visible in interaction content, interaction atmosphere and interaction process.     

The Governance of Corporate Responses to Climate Change: An International Comparison

In response to pressures from governments, investors, non‐governmental organizations and other stakeholders, many large corporations have adopted a variety of carbon and energy management practices, taken action to reduce their emissions and set targets to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Using the case of international retailers, this article examines whether, and under what conditions, non‐state actors might be capable of assuming the governance roles that have historically been played by national governments. This article concludes that external governance pressures can, if they are aligned, robust and of sufficient duration, have a significant influence on internal governance processes and on corporate strategies and actions. However, the specific actions that are taken by companies – in particular those that require significant capital investments – are constrained by the ‘business case’. That is, companies will generally only invest capital in situations when there is a clear financial case (i.e. where the benefits outweigh the costs, when the rate of return meets or exceeds company targets) for action. That is, the extent to which external governance pressures can force companies to take action, in particular challenging or transformative actions that go beyond the boundaries of the business case, is not at all clear. This is particularly the case if the business case weakens, or if the opportunities for incremental change are exhausted. In that context, the power of non‐state actors to force them to consider radical changes in their business processes and their use of energy therefore seems to be very limited. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Business Strategy and the Environment published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd     

终极所有人及其性质与公司治理效率——基于企业家治理的分析

公司治理旨在以股东为核心的各利益相关者之间签订契约,合理配置权、责、利。公司治理效率最大化,即公司治理收益与成本比最大化,最终实现股东利益最大化,实质上是终极所有人利益最大化。全球化趋势不可避免,未来不确定性继续加强,企业家能力的重要性、稀缺性将甚于资本,最终由"企业家治理"取代"共同治理",企业家成为终极所有人。