ABSTRACT
To begin to understand collaboration as a process that yields particular outcomes, it is helpful to start with Gray and Wood’s (1991) theoretical framework for studying collaboration. To understand collaboration, they argue, scholars need to examine three areas: antecedents to collaboration, the process of collaboration itself, and the outcomes of that process (13). It is noteworthy, however, that these three categories are rarely modeled clearly in collaboration research. Scholars often simultaneously associate antecedents with collaboration processes and outcomes, for example, and fail to distinguish mediating from outcome variables. The literature spanning interorganizational relations (Ring and Van de Ven 1994), policy implementation (O’Toole 1997), cooperation theory (Axelrod 1984), and collaboration research (Huxham 1996) abounds with variables likely to enhance collaborations, but these variables either go unanalyzed or are not systematically modeled. Furthermore, process dimensions of collaboration are frequently presented as outcomes (Wood and Gray 1991).
