Patterns of Governance among Inter-organizational Coordination Hubs

We focus on the governance of inter-organizational coordination hubs (ICH). We do so to advance conceptual and empirical insights about ICH governance. We are motivated by the simple observation that, increasingly, organizations are engaging in shared activities, often relying on a purpose-built digital infrastructure to support collaboration among organizations. Here we use the conceptualization of network governance to guide our analysis of characteristics of governance that distinguish low and high performing ICH. To do this we use fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis and data from 61 public safety networks (PSN) – a particular form of ICH. The analysis shows there exist six distinct configurations of PSN governance practices that lead to high performance. Common to all these configurations is competence in managing both stakeholders and the digital infrastructure. Building from the findings, we advance the role of specific competencies and network governance more broadly.