The Collaborative Governance Networks Literature: A Thematic Analysis

Göktuğ Morçöl, Eunsil Yoo, & Shahinshah Faisal AzimPenn State Harrisburg

Presentation at the American Society for Public Administration ConferenceWashington, DC

March 2019

Questions We 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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year

Most Popular Areas of CGN Applications: 1977-2017

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

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

Democracy/Participation 16 4.7Libraries 14 4.2Social/Human Services 11 3.3Author/Research Networks 8 2.4Emergency/Disaster Management 7 2.1Europe/European Union 6 1.8E-government/Social Media 6 1.8Total 337 100Unidentified 282Total 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 thetop group and increasedtheir 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 3.2Journal of Public Administration Research andTheory

12 1.9

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

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

Top Publishers of CGN Papers by Decade1977 – 2017 2000 - 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.

Theory in the CGN LiteratureIs the CGN literature atheoretical? • Papers in the 1970s and 1980s were atheoretical. • 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 theoryCount 5 6 29 240 204 484

% within Decade

100.0% 100.0% 78.4% 78.7% 76.7% 78.2%

TheoryCount 0 0 8 65 62 135

% within Decade

0.0% 0.0% 21.6% 21.3% 23.3% 21.8%

TotalCount 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 3.7Governance networks/Network governance 15 2.4Democratic decision making/Participation 11 1.8Complexity/Complex governance/Complex systems 7 1.1Leadership 4 0.6Institutional/Neo-institutional theory 4 0.6Social capital 3 0.5Transaction-cost economics 3 0.5Constructionism/Social constructionism 3 0.5Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework (Ostrom)

3 0.5

Social-ecological systems (SES) framework (Ostrom) 3 0.5Diffusion of innovations 2 0.3Neoliberalism 1 0.2Actor network theory 1 0.2Regime theory 1 0.2Ethical theory 1 0.2Evolutionary theory/Path dependence 1 0.2Game theory 1 0.2Liberation psychology 1 0.2Total 88 14.2Larger total of those that used theory 135Total Number of Articles in Study 619 100.0

General Methodological Approach by Decade1970 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%

• Case studies have been the most prominent methodological approach.

• Literature reviews declined over time.

• Conceptual discussions became more prevent in recent decades.

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 PercentSocial Network Analysis 10 1.6Regression Analyses 7 1.1Content Analysis 7 1.1Agent-Based Simulations 5 0.8Narrative Analysis 4 0.6Factor/Principal Components Analysis 1 0.2

Survival Analysis/Hazard Model 1 0.2

Cluster Analysis 1 0.2Mapping/GIS 1 0.2None Specified 582 94.0Total 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?