The thesis research is based on the main theoretical findings of Bryson, Crosby, and Stone who introduced the framework for cross-sector collaboration in 2006 and later revised this research in 2015. This framework will be supported by other research conducted on cross-sector collaboration. Before discussing collaboration on local climate action, it is important to understand what is meant by collaboration, cross-sector collaboration, and partnerships.
Collaboration is the interaction between two or more parties who share the same desire or need to achieve a particular goal or outcome. Differing from cooperation, collaboration requires knowledge sharing in the process between participants, but cooperation is more focused on just meeting the end target or product. A partnership is an arrangement between at least two people or groups who are working together but have specific roles and responsibilities. As a set of rules, partnerships can be seen more intense and deeper than collaboration. Collaboration is often used to generate new information or solve, a shared challenge or problem between actors. (Owen and Larson 2017, 9-10 and Kozar 2010, 16-17) Collaboration as a concept is studied more specifically in chapter 2.
The term often used for collaborative action is cross-sector collaboration. Bryson, Crosby, and Stone (2006, 44) define cross-sector collaboration as partnerships between the government, business, nonprofits, communities, and the public as a whole. These actors are either linking or sharing information, resources, activities, and capabilities between either two or more sectors to achieve the outcome that would not be possible to achieve in one sector separately. Cross-sector collaboration is widely used in public and social challenges and is considered by scholars as a
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necessary strategy in public problems. However, some argue that cross-collaboration is currently too complex a phenomenon to be used by the practitioners and therefore would require conceptualization as a dynamic system. (Bryson et al 2006, 44, and 2015, 647-8, 657 & Agranoff and McGuire 1998, 67-68).
The research focus will be on local climate action. To understand the aim of the research, few definitions need to be explained. Firstly, the local level can be defined as “the lowest administration level within government state such as the municipality of the district” (UNESCO Institute for Statistics 2021) and in this research project, the local level is used to refer to municipal governments, such as the cities. Secondly, climate action, or work, can be determined as all the actions taken to reduce the impact of climate change. Berninger (2012, 13) emphasizes the importance of tackling unsustainable issues especially on energy production, buildings, transportation, and food, to ensure that a carbon-neutral society is achievable. These are important aspects when planning the local climate action; within the case study of Imatra, energy efficiency, renewable energy, carbon-neutral public transport, and climate-friendly consumption are examples of actions planned to reach the carbon-neutral city target.
Within the case of Imatra, there has been an interest from the city to increase collaboration with the private sector concerning local climate action. This type of cross-sector collaboration can be called a public-private partnership or collaboration. (Seitanidi, Koufopoulos, and Palmer 2010, 140) The city has had the success of partnering up with large private companies in Imatra but so far, collaboration with small and medium-sized companies has been more challenging. The research aims to explore the city’s local climate policies and by using a questionnaire for the small and medium-sized companies within Imatra, determine the current obstacles and factors affecting cross-sector collaboration between local governance and the private sector in the case of Imatra.
Both the private and public sector have their reasons, motives, and interests to choose cross-sector collaboration instead of working alone. This is usually due to a common goal that has been recognized before the collaboration and has in this way set the motion to collaborative actions. A common goal can also be decided once collaboration has started to weigh parties' interests and values for the collaboration, helping to determine a shared target for collaborative action. In the environment and climate collaboration, common goals can be based on sustainable
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practices, protection or enhancement of the environment, carbon reduction and carbon footprint, and so on. At a governance level, common goals are often derived from global commons, which are resource pools and domains to which all nations have legal access but also have a responsibility to care. (Buck 1998, 6) When moving to lower levels of governance, the goals often become more local; however, this does not mean that the goals could not be based on global commons issues. E.g., a carbon-neutral society tackles the global issue of climate change.
On a local level, like in municipalities, global commons are still evident even though the actions taken are local.
The motivations, interests, and other factors define the parties' approach to the common goal.
However, issues arise especially on public-private collaboration as incompatibilities can be recognized between the parties. Grudinschi (2014, 21) argues that the fundamental difference between public and private parties is the context in which they operate. Public sectors decision and actions need to provide public value and due to this, public sector actions are driven by recognizing and creating public value. Based on Moore (2013, 8), the public value can be determined to some degree as the governmental bodies creating something of value to either improve quality of life for individuals or collective society. However, questions arise on what particular actors are the main determinators of public value and what performance of the governmental bodies would be the proper answer to public value.
On the other end, the private sector aims to increase the economic value of their action. Even though the private sector increasingly notes the environmental issues within their actions, the main driver for companies to make low-carbon changes in their operations are the set obligations by regulatory bodies. It can be argued that overall a movement from obligation to responsibility is needed, especially since the private sector does bring innovations, responsiveness, efficiency, and provision of specific skill sets and resources to the table when collaborating with the public sector. (Scheyvens, Banks and Hughes 2016, 372 and 380) However, the obligations and expectations of differently sized companies and different industries face, differ greatly and small and medium-sized companies do not necessarily have the same obligations that large multinational companies. Altogether, public-private collaboration is set from the beginning to face obstacles and challenges due to different values, interests, and motives. In this research
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project, these factors will be studied from the point of view of the private sector to determine options for cross-sector collaboration in the case of Imatra.