Exploring the Ecosystem for Public Affairs Cases & Centers in Taiwan from the Perspective of Collaboration Governance
Kuan-I Lu, Kaiju Chang
Abstract
This paper studies the case of the Ecosystem for Public Affairs Cases & Centers (EcoPACC) to explore why public servant training organizations, nonprofit groups, and academic institutions establish and participate in the EcoPACC, how members and stakeholders interact with one another during the collaborative process, and evaluate performances of the EcoPACC from the perspective of collaboration governance. By collecting interview data from members and stakeholders, this paper finds that the current situation of case method teaching in Taiwan, past experiences of cooperation among members, and mutual goals achievements among members are key to influencing members’ participation. The critical factors to sustain the collaborations among members are related to the dimensions of commitment to the collaborative process, resource-sharing and reciprocity, leadership, and the mechanism of decision-making and participation. Limited resources and challenges of case writing are difficulties that members and stakeholders are confronted with during the process of collaboration. This paper also evaluates preliminary performances of the EcoPACC from the dimensions of attractor effect, learning, leverage, and synergy. We suggest that the EcoPACC keep improving the stability of collaborative relationships among members, and developing strategies to attract more organizational and individual participants with diverse backgrounds.
Keywords: case method teaching, Ecosystem for Public Affairs Cases & Centers in Taiwan, collaborative governance, collaborative platform, qualitative research