Toward a leading-agency coordinated collaboration model? lessons learned from interagency collaboration in Chinese environmental protection

ABSTRACT

In this study, we are interested primarily in how a structural factor – social capital – relates to Chinese national government agencies’ partner selection in environmental protection. Our study finds that their partner selection is associated positively with activity closure and popularity closure while being negatively influenced by cyclicity closure. Moreover, their partner selection is characterized predominantly by a leading-agency coordinated collaboration model, which favors the engagement of a shared third agency and emphasizes the similarity of interests. This study expands the theoretical connotations of social capital and provides new insights into the mechanisms underlying actors’ partner selection in interagency collaboration.

KEYWORDS:

• Interagency collaboration
• leading agency
• social capital
• SAOM
• China
• environmental protection

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Broadly, Guanxi is a specific type of informal relationship, which essentially implies an obligation to act reciprocally. Favors granted expect favors in return. However, not all informal relationships imply such an obligation (Barbalet, 2023). Compared to other informal relationships, guanxi is underpinned more by dyadic reciprocity and mutuality and driven more by the incentive of maintaining mianzi (i.e., face). However, not all informal relationships imply a mutual obligation (Barbalet, 2023).

2 The order of agencies' names in the titles of co-signed government documents reflects the responsibilities of involved government agencies in resolving a particular issue. Often, agencies appearing earlier in a co-signed policy document title play a more important role and assume the main responsibilities in facilitating the actions of all involved government agencies, while those appearing later play mainly a supplementary role. For instance, a document has been co-signed by the three national government agencies: the MEE, the MNR, and the MOF. Often, the MEE is the leading agency, whereas the MNR and the MOF are supporting agencies.

3 In network analysis, structural hierarchy refers to the arrangements in which network actors possess distinct prominence or centralities. In the shared popularity or activity closure structures mentioned before, compared to the other two actors, the shared partner has either a higher indegree centrality when it only receives ties from them or a higher outdegree centrality when it only sent out ties to them, thus assuming an informally and structurally hierarchical superiority.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jing Huang

Jing Huang is a Ph.D. candidate majoring in Public Administration at the School of Government, Nanjing University. His Studies are centered around policy process of complex issues and the application of computational social science methods. His studies have been published in journals, such as Public Policy and Administration, and Policy Studies.

Yanwei Li

Yanwei Li is a Associate Professor at the School of Public Administration, Nanjing Normal University. His research focuses on environmental governance, collaboration, and accountability. His studies have been published in journals, such as Public Management Review, Public Administration, Policy Sciences, Journal of Public Policy, Journal of Social Policy, Review of Policy Research, and International Public Managment Journal, among others.