The Dynamic Collaborative Governance Continuum Model: A Theory‐Building Systematic Review of Success and Failure Factors

Abstract

The current study aims to analyze the development of collaborative governance (CG), the factors that influence its success and failure, as well as to provide a conceptual framework for dynamic CG. This study employed a systematic evaluation of the literature, based on 45 papers out of 712 from 2014 to 2023, addressing CG as a key aspect in solving wicked problems. The study found three important things. First, temporal analysis suggests that the literature on CG has experienced three different phases: institutionalization, complexity and dynamics, besides the adaptive and digital age, therefore exhibiting a paradigmatic shift from a static paradigm to a more dynamic and adaptive one. Second, the thematic synthesis has identified themes of success, such as institutional design, learning and adaptation, and resources and capability, and themes of failure, with conflicts of interest and complexities being identified as the most common problems. Third, the study contributed a novel theory, the dynamic CG continuum model (DCGCM), which conceptualizes CG as a continuum with three stages (fragmented, transitional, and adaptive collaboration) evolving through three dimensions of maturity (structural‐institutional, relational processes, adaptive learning) and two visible transition mechanisms. The DCGCM overcomes the limitations of the remaining CG models by unifying and coherently integrating temporal dimensions, transition processes, positional typologies, and the inherent non‐linearity of collaborative development. The implications of these findings are tremendous, conceptually and practically, for program designers, policy makers, and researchers attempting to understand, diagnose, and drive the growth of CG across a number of sectoral and geographic contexts.