Conditions for Successful Collaboration in Emergency Response: Evidence From a Survey Experiment of Organized Search and Rescue Volunteers in Norway

Abstract

Trust, previous collaboration history, power asymmetry, and shifts from horizontal to hierarchical governance are factors that have been argued and, to some extent, shown to impact the success of collaboration. However, we know little about how these factors play out in the context of emergency response collaboration, particularly between public authorities and organized search and rescue (SAR) volunteers. Using a conjoint experiment with organized SAR volunteers in Norway, we examine how collaboration that blends hierarchical command and horizontal network coordination works in practice by randomly varying multiple features of a hypothetical mission. Our exploratory study confirms that the shift from horizontal to vertical modes of governance poses a challenge for collaborative emergency response. Furthermore, the findings highlight that trust, as social capital built through repeated interactions, is a key resource in multi-actor emergency management, both as an initial condition and during the response phase.