Public–Private Collaboration Led by Private Organizations in Combating Crises: Evidence From China’s Fighting Against COVID-19

Huanming Wang,Bing Ran,Huiting Qi

doi:10.1177/00953997211009890

Huanming Wang, Bing Ran + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997211009890

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Abstract

Public–private collaborations have the potential to effectively respond to extreme events. However, traditional public–private collaborations that are usually led by governmental actors often encounter significant difficulties in a crisis. Based on a case study of a public–private collaboration dealing with COVID-19 in China, we explore how a private actor emerges as a leader to initiate and manage a public–private collaboration in the crisis, and how stakeholders in this collaboration work together to effectively handle the crisis. The findings indicate critical characteristics and contingencies when a private actor leads the cross-sector collaboration to effectively cope with uncertainties and deliver public services in crisis time.

Highlights

Announced as a global pandemic by World Health Organization, COVID-19 has relentlessly spread across the world in 2020 as the largest public health crisis in this century
It is yet unclear that given all we know about the characteristics of a private organization, why and under what conditions these characteristics of the private sector suddenly become the most effective tool in addressing wicked problems in a crisis? We argue that the idea of cross-sector collaboration approach to responding to pandemic crisis is not new (Moynihan, 2008), but a private organization mediating cross-sector collaboration formation and managing the cross-sector collaboration to effectively respond to a crisis is rarely discussed in literature
Through an informative case on how a private actor emerged as a leader to initiate and manage a public–private collaboration to effectively cope with a crisis, we pinpointed four major characteristics of such a cross-sector collaboration: consistent goals and trust, capability, institutional flexibility, and effectiveness in a very short time

Summary

Introduction

Announced as a global pandemic by World Health Organization, COVID-19 has relentlessly spread across the world in 2020 as the largest public health crisis in this century. Cross-sector collaborations could be defined as an arrangement in which public and private actors jointly deliver products and services based on sharing of risks, resources, costs, and benefits (Bryson et al, 2006) It is generally a product of government initiatives with complex contractual relationships between participants, and it is often mandated or facilitated by laws and governmental frameworks (Noran, 2011), implying that governmental leadership and political will play a leading role in creating, fostering, and enhancing cross-sector collaborations (Kapucu, 2012). Leading a cross-sector collaboration denotes the general phenomenon of bringing partners together, guiding the cooperation, and ensuring all parties achieving their goals in crisis time (Gray & Purdy, 2018; Stadtler & Karakulak, 2020) This leading role is played by a certain organization that has unique professional resources to motivate public and private organizations, facilitate the formation of partnership, build trust among partners, design how the parties will interact, gain commitment to partnerships, and effectively manage the partnership. A Case of Public–Private Collaborations Led by Private Sector to Handle COVID-19 Crisis in China

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