Does Collaboration Lead to Sustainability? A Study of Public–Private Partnerships in the Swedish Mountains

Abstract

Abstract:The conflicts that frequently manifest in the Swedish mountains often stem from the use and preservation of natural resources. Resistance against protected area proposals, protests concerning the management of large carnivores, the felling of old-growth forests, and disputes over who should be allowed to hunt or fish are all commonplace. There are currently strong trends, both in national and international policy making, towards leaning on various forms of collaborative governance arrangements to deal with such policy failures. Consequently, various forms of partnerships have been initiated to promote more sustainable practices in the mountain regions of Sweden. To what extent has the creation of these collaborative partnerships in natural resource management improved policy output and sustainability outcomes? To examine the issue, data was extracted from 47 semi-structured interviews with 39 project leaders and eight county officials, with the sample randomly selected from a database of 245 public-private collaborative projects in the Swedish mountains. The results indicate that partnerships do lead to improved sustainability, especially when it comes to social outcomes. However, there is a need for more systematic follow-ups by practitioners, particularly on ecological outcomes, where the country administrative boards should take a leading role and facilitate such evaluations in the future.

Understanding of Public–Private Partnership Stakeholders as a Condition of Sustainable Development

“…These resources can be categorized in terms of the public and private sector. Therefore, we confirm Zhang's et al findings of the active involvement of both partners as a critical factor for sustainable development of the PPP mode [52] as well as Bjärstig indicating that partnerships improve sustainability [14]. Also, sustainable contractual PPP relationship supports the achievement of social benefits and the improvement of future social values [53].…”

“…They call attention to cooperation as the well-being of economies, people and environment are linked. This connection means that the economic, social, and environmental aspects are interrelated and must be considered together [14]. In particular, neither economic development alone is enough to solve social problems, nor can environmental problems be solved only by technical means [44].…”

“…Finally, Prandecki et al [13] claim that urbanization, public networking, and institutional changes (all related to the subject of the research) will have the most significant impact on sustainable development. Bjärstig [14] said that only a few authors of the collaborative governance literature have focused on sustainability outcomes and also according to Hueskes et al [1] there is a need to include sustainability in PPP projects. Miccoli, Finucci, and Murro [15] also call for integration of the development process, which means among others a holistic approach, bottom-up planning and More generally, research aims to contribute to a theoretical understanding concerning the determinants of sustainable city development and success of PPPs.…”

Typology and Success Factors of Collaboration for Sustainable Growth in the IT Service Industry

“…Companies are increasingly cultivating collaborative relationship with a variety of external partners such as customers, suppliers and competitors to integrate value creation processes for sustainable growth [1,2]. While some studies have investigated internal organization for innovation, other researchers concentrate on inter-organizational forms of collaboration in the development and commercialization of new products and services [3].…”

Education for Environmental Sustainability: A Green School Development

“…Environmental issues are resulted from the competing interest of myriad stakeholders and collaboration among those stakeholders is required to create new social values promoting sustainability [74, p. 22]. Collaboration, joint development and partnership are requirement to successful sustainability [75, p. 1], [76]. Sustainability failure is caused by lack of collaborative actions [77].…”