A next step in collaborative policy innovation research: Analyzing interactions using exponential random graph modelling

Collaborative policy innovation is a relatively new research niche in the public innovation literature. Collaborative policy innovation can be interpreted as processes in which a multitude of actors intentionally work together to develop, realize and propagate enriched policy solutions that are radically different from their predecessors in terms of policy understanding, program theory, objectives, and strategies in order to tame unmet societal challenges. The articles of Carstensen and Bason (2012) and Sørensen and Waldorff (2014), which were published here in The Innovation Journal, were amongst the first to use the concept in their studies. Ever since, various other scholars have explored the value of collaborations as vehicles for the promotion of policy innovations. In this discussion paper, we concisely summarize the contemporary state of the literature of the research niche, we propose a possible future venue, and we discuss a useful research methodology, Exponential Random Graph Modelling, which adds a new possibility to our methodological toolbox to study the interactive dynamics in collaborative policy innovations.