Case Study: NASA Collaborative Transformation Assignment

Collaborative Governance Networks Literature: A Thematic Analysis

PADM 804 Intergovernmental Relations and Intergovernmental Management

Permission granted by Professor Goktug Morcol, Penn State University-Harrisburg

Presented at the ASPA Conference 2019

Questions Professor Morcol Asked • What has been the general trend in publications about collaborative governance

networks?

• What were the most popular areas in the collaborative governance networks applications?

• What were the leading countries in collaborative governance networks applications?

• Which journals published papers on collaborative networks?

• Which theories, if any, did the collaborative governance network researchers used?

• What were the general methodologies and analytical methods used by researchers?

Data Collection Source and Method • We present the preliminary findings of our content analyses of the scholarly

articles on “collaborative governance networks” (CGN).

• We collected articles from ProQuest.

• In our searches, we used the following keywords: • Collaborative governance • Collaborative network • Governance network • Network governance • Collaborative public management • Collaborative public administration

Data Collection and Source for Analyses • Our searches yielded:

• 1532 scholarly articles published in English, between 1977 and 2017. • We found other sources (books, dissertations, government

publication, newspaper articles, etc.) too, but we excluded them from our analyses.

• Of the 1532 articles, we have read/analyzed 644 so far. • Of the 644, we found 619 relevant to be included in our analyses.

• The remaining 25 articles either did not include sufficient information or they were misidentified (e.g., they were initially selected because they included the names of professional networks)

• We read and coded the titles and abstracts of the papers and the journals they were published in. • The following analyses are the results of our analyses of these fields in the

spreadsheet.

General Trend in Publications on CGN

• CGN publications increased significantly in the 21st century.

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Most Popular Areas of CGN Applications: 1977-2017 Frequency Percent

Environment/Ecology 59 17.5 Health 56 16.6 Local Gov/Urban/Community 42 12.5 Water resources 38 11.3 Public Adm/Public Policy/Pol Science (General) 30 8.9

Education 26 7.7 Natural Resources/Common Pool Resources/Fisheries 18 5.3

Democracy/Participation 16 4.7 Libraries 14 4.2 Social/Human Services 11 3.3 Author/Research Networks 8 2.4 Emergency/Disaster Management 7 2.1 Europe/European Union 6 1.8 E-government/Social Media 6 1.8 Total 337 100 Unidentified 282 Total Reviewed 619

Most Popular Areas in the 20th and 21st Centuries

1977 – 1999 2000-2017

Frequency Percent Frequency Percent

1. Libraries 10 20.8 1. Environment/Ecology 59 10.3

2. Health 8 16.7 2. Health 48 8.4

3. Author/Research networks 3 6.3 3. Local Gov/Urban 37 6.5

4. Business/Financial 5 10.4 4. Water resources 35 6.1

5. Water resources 3 6.3 5. Business/Financial 34 6

6. Biology/Biotech 2 4.2 6. Pub Adm/Pub Pol/ Pol Sci general 30 5.3

7. IT/Telecom 1 2.1 7. IT/Telecom 23 4

8. Local Gov/Urban 5 10.4 8. Education 23 4

9. Education 3 6.3 9. Natural res/Common pool/Fisheries 18 3.2

10. Organizations (general) 1 2.1 10. Democracy/Participation 16 2.8

Evolution of the Top-5 Areas in the 20th Century

Geographical Distribution of Publications (Countries in which Studies were Conducted)

• Total number of countries: 43

0.0%

2.0%

4.0%

6.0%

8.0%

10.0%

12.0%

14.0%

16.0%

18.0%

1990 2000 2010

Total

Top Countries Since 1990

US UK Canada Australia Netherlands China S. Korea

Geographical Distribution of Publications by Decade

• US has been the leader since the 1990s.

• US has been followed by UK, Canada, and Australia.

• The Netherlands, China, South Korea, and Brazil joined the top group and increased their percentages in the 21st

century.

Journals that Publish CGN Papers (1977-2017)

• Total number of journals: 452 (619 papers) • The publications seem to be dispersed

among journals. • But there is some concentration in a few

journals.

• The top three journals (PAR, JPART, ARPA) are the public administration journals with the highest impact factors in recent years.

Journals that Published 4 or More Papers Frequency Percent

Public Administration Review 20 3.2 Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory

12 1.9

American Review of Public Administration 11 1.7 Ecology and Society 8 1.3

Public Administration 6 1 International Journal of Public Administration 5 0.8 Public Organization Review 5 0.8 Administrative Theory & Praxis 4 0.6 Environmental Management 4 0.6 Environmental Science & Policy 4 0.6 International Review of Public Administration 4 0.6 National Civic Review 4 0.6 Policy studies 4 0.6 Public Management Review 4 0.6 Public Manager 4 0.6 Urban Studies 4 0.6

Top Publishers of CGN Papers by Decade 1977 – 2017

• Library science and organization journals were the primary outlets in the 20th century.

• Public administration and ecology journals took the lead in the 21st century.

2000 – 2017

Theory in the CGN Literature Is the CGN literature a-theoretical? • Papers in the 1970s and 1980s were a-theoretical. • Researchers began to use theories in the 1990s. • Even then only 20-25% of the papers used some theory.

Decade Total

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Is there a theory

No theory Count 5 6 29 240 204 484

% within Decade 100.0% 100.0% 78.4% 78.7% 76.7% 78.2%

Theory Count 0 0 8 65 62 135

% within Decade 0.0% 0.0% 21.6% 21.3% 23.3% 21.8%

Total Count 5 6 37 305 266 619

% within Decade 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

Theory in the CGN Literature

• We defined “theory” broadly: conceptual frameworks and well-developed theories.

• Even then, we could identify 88 articles (our of 619) that used some theory.

• The most frequently used theories are actually conceptual frameworks: • Collaborative governance • Governance networks • Democratic decision-

making/participation • Complexity/complex systems

Frequency Percent of Total Number

of Articles

Collaborative governance 23 3.7

Governance networks/Network governance 15 2.4

Democratic decision making/Participation 11 1.8

Complexity/Complex governance/Complex systems 7 1.1

Leadership 4 0.6

Institutional/Neo-institutional theory 4 0.6

Social capital 3 0.5

Transaction-cost economics 3 0.5

Constructionism/Social constructionism 3 0.5

Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework (Ostrom) 3 0.5

Social-ecological systems (SES) framework (Ostrom) 3 0.5

Diffusion of innovations 2 0.3

Neoliberalism 1 0.2

Actor network theory 1 0.2

Regime theory 1 0.2

Ethical theory 1 0.2

Evolutionary theory/Path dependence 1 0.2

Game theory 1 0.2

Liberation psychology 1 0.2

Total 88 14.2

Larger total of those that used theory 135

Total Number of Articles in Study 619 100.0

General Methodological Approach by Decade

• Case studies have been the most prominent methodological approach.

• Literature reviews declined over time.

• Conceptual discussions became more prevent in recent decades.

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 Total Case study 33.3% 35.1% 17.7% 18.4% 19.1% Conceptual discussion 13.5% 5.9% 10.9% 8.4% Literature review 40.0% 33.3% 5.4% 3.6% 3.8% 4.4% Interviews 2.3% 6.4% 3.9% Case study (Comparative) 2.7% 3.6% 3.8% 3.6% Survey 2.7% 2.0% 3.8% 2.7% Mixed Methods 1.0% 2.3% 1.5% Model Development 1.3% 1.9% 1.5% Experimental/Quasi- Experimental

2.7% 1.0% 0.4% 0.8%

Meta-analysis 0.7% 0.3% Grounded Theory 0.7% 0.3% Ethnography 0.3% 0.4% 0.3% Focus Groups 0.7% 0.3% Action Research 0.3% 0.4% 0.3% Qualitative (Unspecified) 0.3% 0.4% 0.3% Best practices 0.3% 0.4% 0.3% Game Theory 0.4% 0.2% Panel Design 0.4% 0.2% Unclear 20.0% 16.7% 8.1% 5.2% 9.4% 7.4% Unspecified 40.0% 16.7% 29.7% 53.1% 36.8% 44.3%

100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

Analytical Methods Used by Researchers

• Very few paper abstracts specified their analytical methods.

• SNA, regression, content analysis, and agent-based simulations are the most prominent analytical methods.

Method Frequency Percent Social Network Analysis 10 1.6

Regression Analyses 7 1.1

Content Analysis 7 1.1

Agent-Based Simulations 5 0.8

Narrative Analysis 4 0.6

Factor/Principal Components Analysis 1 0.2

Survival Analysis/Hazard Model 1 0.2

Cluster Analysis 1 0.2

Mapping/GIS 1 0.2

None Specified 582 94.0

Total 619 100.0

Summary of Findings • CGN publications increased significantly in the 21st century.

• The most popular areas of CGN applications are environment/ecology, healthcare management/policy, local government/urban studies, and water resources management.

• The leading countries in CGN applications are the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia. • Others joined them in the 21st century.

• CGN papers have been published mainly in the leading public administration and ecology journals.

• Only 20-25% of CGN papers used any kind of theory. • Most of these are actually conceptual frameworks.

• The largest numbers of papers are single and comparative case studies and conceptual discussions.

• Very few papers used analytical methods. • The most frequently applied methods are social network analysis,

regression analyses, and content analyses.

Thank you.

Comments? Questions?