Institutional Collective Action Framework Research Articles

Grass-Root Organisations, Intergovernmental Collaboration, and Emergency Preparedness: An Institutional Collective Action Approach

This paper examines the importance of grass-root emergency response groups in emergency preparedness. Consistent with the Institutional Collective Action framework, we highlight key constraints associated with local government strategies of mutual resource exchange and barriers to intergovernmental collaboration. We examine local governments’ emergency preparedness using survey data collected in the North Central Texas region. We employed a simple OLS analysis to determine mutual exchange and Poisson estimations on the likelihood of local governments receiving and providing external assistance. Findings showed that the presence of grass-root organisations in a jurisdiction is associated with emergency preparedness, highlighting the importance of norms of volunteerism. Local political institutions and participation in federally funded programmes also have an effect on local government decisions.

Building R&D collaboration between university-research institutes and small medium-sized enterprises

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of governments in resolving collective action dilemmas arising in R&D collaboration between university-research institutes (URI) and small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). The paper focusses on R&D collaboration in South Korea in light of its major industrial reforms since the 1980s in strengthening the national science and technology innovation system. Design/methodology/approach – To examine factors explaining the likelihood of SMEs to collaborate with URIs in R&D activities, the authors used data that were collected in the Seoul Metropolitan Area by the Seoul Institute in 2010. A logistic regression analysis was performed with data from the Open Innovation System survey, which consists of 336 SMEs; and supplemented by firm-level data retrieved from the government official statistics on structural characteristics of SMEs. The Mann-Whitney Test of Difference was employed to test the perceived importance of R&D activities in various stages of product development. Findings – This research found that SMEs having government certified R&D facilities and higher investments in R&D activities explain their likelihood in engaging in R&D collaboration with URIs. SMEs in the chemical sector also are more likely to establish R&D collaboration with URIs compared to those in the information technology (IT) sector. In terms of the importance of R&D activities, there are marked differences between SMEs collaborating with URIs and those that do not. The differences are found in R&D’s needs related to acquisition of information, basic research, pilot testing of products, and product manufacturing. Most SMEs in the sample reported several barriers to R&D activities, particularly in securing human resources and the operation of R&D; and that, they believe the government can assist them in research and development activities and human resource training. Research limitations/implications – This study provides new insights into the way in which R&D facilities of SMEs may facilitate R&D collaboration with URIs. The results broaden the understanding on the scope of R&D collaboration adopted by SMEs and strategies that can be adopted and implemented by government agencies to attract and retain firms that are innovative. While the findings also provide insights on the scope of management decisions adopted by SMEs, the sample was limited to 336 SMEs in the Seoul Metropolitan area, making generalization to other regions of the country limited. Originality/value – From the institutional collective action framework, this research provides a critical lens to build R&D collaboration between the URI and SMEs, highlighting the role of government with considerable efforts to facilitate SMEs to enter into arrangements with URIs by focussing on the importance of R&D facility and stages of product development.

Institutional Collective Action Issues in Nonprofit Self-Organized Collaboration

This study explores self-organized voluntary nonprofit collaboration to investigate why and under which circumstances nonprofit organizations participate in voluntary-based informal collaboration. To answer this question, we extend the institutional collective action (ICA) framework to identify the reasons why nonprofit organizations participate in informal collaborative arrangements. Based on data derived from a national survey of nonprofit organizations, we report evidence that the internal organizational conditions, embedded relationships, service areas, and client population of nonprofits influence their participation in informal collaborations.

The Influence of Contextual Factors on Collective Actions for Locating Facilities with Externalities: Applying the Institutional Collective Action Framework

This study applies the Institutional Collective Action Framework to two cases: proposals for the construction of Taekwondo Park and the location of a nuclear waste dump site in Booahn. While the proposed park caused excessive competition because its benefits were overestimated and its private goods were considered necessary, the proposed nuclear waste site resulted in excessive conflict because of uncertainty about its potential harms and because its public goods were considered unnecessary. The former case showed homogeneity of political power and cooperation based on trust, whereas the latter case showed heterogeneity of political power and conflict based on distrust. Both cases showed politicians` active participation based on their reelection goals and a blocked network structure between central and local governments. Stakeholders in both cases showed strong internal ties with other stakeholders with similar potential political and economic benefits.

Adoption of Institutional Options for Affordable Housing Production: Collective Action Problems and Option Choice

This study investigates the factors that influence the choice of options for affordable housing production. It also demonstrates the utility of the Institutional Collective Action (IAC) framework by identifying how it can be applied to the choice of options for affordable housing production. The findings of this study show that the option chosen by a local government for affordable housing production depends on property value of affordable housing and the capacity of local government, rather than local government’s social responsibility and the community’s economic condition. This study also demonstrates that transaction costs incurred due to land regulations can substantially influence the adoption of options for affordable housing production. Finally, one of the important findings is that networks between regional cooperative agencies and local governments can promote a rehabilitation option for affordable housing production. This result suggests that local governments need to actively take advantage of coordination with regional agencies to successfully promote affordable housing production.

The Problem of Democratic Anchorage for Interlocal Agreements

More attention must be given to the performance of interlocal agreements (ILAs) as they continue to grow in popularity as a mode of service provision in U.S. cities. This study scrutinizes the democratic performance of ILAs, drawing theoretical insights from the literature on network governance. Because ILAs shift service responsibility from individual cities to multijurisdictional arrangements, these tools may lead to complaints about the responsiveness of the service to the public in the individual units served by the multijurisdictional arrangement. Thus, democratic anchorage is central to assessments of ILA performance. This study evaluates democratic anchorage by identifying concerns with ILAs in interviews with a sample of local elected officials in Michigan. The concerns then are discussed in the context of the institutional collective action framework, a theoretical foundation that has become popular for explaining the emergence of ILAs and regional cooperation.

Linking Cooperative Arrangements and Economic Development Strategies: An Institutional Collection Action Framework

The main purpose of this paper is to examine if cooperative arrangements among local governments explain the tendency for local governments to adopt certain types of economic development strategies. We take our clues from the Institutional Collective Action (ICA) framework by highlighting the elements of competition and cooperation in economic development strategies. The general hypothesis is that when local governments decide to cooperate, they are acting strategically to improve their economic competitiveness. The general hypothesis is that when local governments decide to cooperate, they are acting strategically to improve their economic competitiveness. We utilize a series of binary regressions with data collected from a survey of local development officials in 206 cities located in twelve metropolitan areas in the United States. The results provide partial support for our general propositions. We found cooperation has no effect on “go it alone” tax incentive strategies but a positive effect on the use of capital intensive strategies that are crucial for enhancing regional competiveness.

Competition and Cooperation: Local Government Joint Ventures for Economic Development

ABSTRACT:Voluntary cooperative arrangements are increasingly being established among local governments for economic development purposes. This article extends the institutional collective action framework to economic development to investigate the conditions under which local government units overcome transaction costs to establish joint ventures. Data were derived from a survey of intergovernmental relations for 206 local governments with a population of 10,000 or more in 12 metropolitan areas. The findings of a logistic regression analysis indicate that endogenous resources, such as cooperative norms and trust, as well as the local and regional context, influence cooperation.

Metropolitan Governance and Institutional Collective Action

This article describes the institutional collective action (ICA) framework and its application to the study of governance arrangements in metropolitan areas by focusing on the tools of regional governance for solving ICA problems. Regional governance mechanisms are classified by their focus on either collective or network relationships. The role of these within these mechanisms is analyzed and the transaction costs barriers to the emergence of regional governance institutions are identified. The concluding discussion identifies the limitations of self-organizing mechanisms and develops a research agenda to investigate the emergence, evolution, and performance of regional governance institutions.

Institutional Ties, Transaction Costs, and External Service Production

Analyses of local government contracting increasingly focus on understanding how the transaction costs created by service attributes limit opportunities for external service production. However, the institutional collective action framework suggests that networks among local government actors help to offset these costs for intergovernmental contracting decisions. We use data describing service production arrangements of cities in Michigan to examine the proposition that service production decisions are conditioned by the communication networks created through institutional linkages in addition to the transaction characteristics of services. We examine three different production options: (1) internal production, (2) joint or complete contracting with another government, and (3) production by a private or nonprofit organization, and find strong support for the expected role of transaction costs in these production choices. We also find that some types of networks created by institutions increase the likelihood that local governments will rely on intergovernmental service arrangements.