Explaining the quality of the relationship between public and private partners in collaborative processes: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) of 25 public-private partnerships in the Netherlands and Belgium

For some time, scholars know that the traditional top-down decision making and implementation of policies, products and services is facing issues. As a response, collaborative governance brings multiple stakeholders together... [ view full abstract ]

For some time, scholars know that the traditional top-down decision making and implementation of policies, products and services is facing issues. As a response, collaborative governance brings multiple stakeholders together with governments to engage in joint decision making (see Ansell & Gash, 2008).

Yet, collaborative governance is a broad concept. It includes various forms of collaboration between governments and other actors. In this paper, we study the collaboration between public and private partners in the form of public-private partnerships (PPPs). This type of collaboration is often shaped by elaborate contracts. However, in search for successful collaboration partners often go beyond the contract. Although the research into relational aspects of PPPs is rather limited, existing research highlights the importance of the relationship between public and private actors in these partnerships (e.g. Weihe, 2009). Relational aspects, such as trust and communication, are considered to be critical success factors in the collaborative process in PPPs.

Therefore, central in this paper is the question under what combinations of conditions we can expect collaborative process in PPPs to work? In answering this question we particularly focus on the quality of the relationship between public and private partners in these projects.

Based on the results of an earlier systematic literature review on the quality of the relationships in public-private partnerships – in which a number of explanatory factors that may clarify the development of the collaborative relationships were determined – several conditions were tested. These conditions include amongst others previous experience, communication, and management. A number of these conditions has proven to help develop the collaborative process in earlier studies (e.g. Ansell & Gash, 2008). This paper tries to further develop our knowledge about the collaborative process by a. testing these conditions for a specific type of collaborative governance, namely PPPs, and b. by identifying combinations of conditions that result in successful collaborative process between public and private partners.

   To test how the different conditions affect each other and jointly shape the collaborative process, we perform a Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). With the QCA we systematically compare 25 cases of collaborative governance – in this case PPP projects in the Netherlands and Belgium. The QCA is based upon a document analysis, and almost 75 interviews and questionnaires with public and private professionals involved in the 25 projects. The data were collected in the period between June 2016 and March 2017. After transcribing, the interviews were coded using Nvivo to make them suited for analysis.