Implementation in collaboration governance

Although collaborative governance has become commonplace, little research has explored issues of implementation. In this chapter, we argue that understanding implementation is necessary to advancing research on the instrumental and performance aspects of collaborative governance and collaborative governance regimes (CGRs). Moreover, such understanding requires a pluralist and dynamic approach that accounts for the myriad actors, authorities, and processes involved in collaboration dynamics and collaborative actions or outputs. Accordingly, we draw on the open systems view of implementation in the Strategic Action Field Framework (Sandfort and Moulton, 2015; Moulton and Sandfort, 2017) and connect it to the Integrative Framework for Collaborative Governance (Emerson and Nabatchi, 2015a). Finally, we suggest that while all collaborative governance efforts face general implementation challenges, the more specific - and perhaps more consequential - challenges are likely to vary by regime type, that is, whether the CGR is self-initiated, independently convened, or externally directed.