Collaboration partners that respond to setbacks effectively can avoid blame games

This article examines why urban collaborations among government, business, and nonprofit actors succeed in some cases but stall or collapse in others. Studying collaborations across common city policy areas such as housing, education, public safety, economic development, health, and transportation, the authors argue that setbacks are inevitable in cross-sector work. What matters is how participants interpret and respond to them. 

Productive collaborations enter “mutual learning” loops: partners build trust, share information, adapt strategies, and use problems as opportunities to improve joint action. Less successful collaborations fall into “mutual blaming” loops, where actors protect themselves, assign fault, withhold information, and undermine collective problem-solving. The article shifts attention away from finding the perfect governance structure and toward the kinds of ongoing relational and behavioral dynamics that help collaborations recover from difficulty. Overall, it shows that collaborative success depends on learning-oriented responses to conflict, uncertainty, and failure.

Cross-sector collaboration in cities: learning journey or blame game?
Authors: Santiago Pulido-Gómez , Jorrit de Jong , Jan W Rivkin
Published: 2025, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory