Understanding the dynamics of Civil Society Organization responses in the cross‐sector collaboration process with a government partner: A typology from a grounded theory approach

Abstract

This study, which uses grounded theory procedures, explores the dynamic aspects of the Civil Society Organization (CSO)‐government collaboration process by considering the case of South Korea's Seoul Community Development Initiatives program. Through multisite case studies involving 31 in‐depth interviews, we identified six different patterns of how CSOs define their roles within cross‐sectoral collaboration processes which are shaped by various configurations of the respective levels of government involvement and CSOs' community engagement. Our findings suggest that strong CSO leadership, previous collaboration experience, and proactive community involvement by the CSOs all play vital roles in fostering desirable outcomes for CSOs' cross‐sectoral collaboration across the six patterns.