ABSTRACT

Understanding the performance of collaborative governance regimes (CGRs) necessitates an understanding of how stakeholders and their interactions evolve over time. However, few studies assess the evolution of the structure or process dynamics of CGRs over time. This paper contributes to our understanding of the longitudinal dynamics of CGRs. We apply a modified grounded theory approach to a dataset of collaboration case studies to develop empirically-based theory about how often CGRs persist over time, how different components of CGRs evolve over time, what conditions support or hinder this evolution, and how different developmental trajectories lead to differences in the outputs and outcomes achieved by these groups. We find that CGRs follow a variety of trajectories, from failing to initiate, to achieving their work in a relatively quick time, to sustaining their operations for decades, to incurring slow or rapid declines in health. Additionally, many characteristics of CGRs, including leadership, collaborative process, accountability, and outputs/outcomes, peak at the midpoint of the observed time, suggesting that at some point, even stable and healthy collaborations incur some decline in their robustness. As an exploratory study, this work highlights the need for a better accounting of how CGRs develop, sustain, evolve, and decline over time.

摘要

要了解协作治理机制（CGR）的绩效，就必须了解利益相关者及其相互作用如何随着时间而发展。但是，很少有研究评估CGR的结构或过程动力学随时间的变化。本文有助于我们对CGR的纵向动力学的理解。我们将改进的扎根理论方法应用于协作案例研究的数据集，以开发基于经验的理论，涉及CGR随时间推移持续的频率，CGR的不同组成部分随时间演变，哪些条件支持或阻碍了这种演变以及不同的发展轨迹导致这些群体在产出和结果上存在差异。我们发现，CGR遵循各种轨迹，从未能启动到在相对较短的时间内完成工作，维持他们数十年的业务，导致健康缓慢或快速下降。此外，CGR的许多特征，包括领导力，协作过程，问责制和产出/结果，在观察到的时间的中点达到顶峰，这表明在某个时刻，即使稳定，健康的协作也会导致其健壮性下降。作为一项探索性研究，这项工作强调需要更好地考虑CGR如何随着时间发展，维持，发展和下降。即使是稳定，健康的合作，其健壮性也会有所下降。作为一项探索性研究，这项工作强调需要更好地考虑CGR如何随着时间发展，维持，发展和下降。即使是稳定，健康的合作，其健壮性也会有所下降。作为一项探索性研究，这项工作强调需要更好地考虑CGR如何随着时间发展，维持，发展和下降。