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Scholars have recognized the importance of uncertainty as institutional context in collaborative water management, but the relationship between uncertainty and collaborative performance is mixed. On the one hand, increased uncertainty will positively enhance the performance of collaborative governance through new ties and innovations. On the other hand, certain types of uncertainties are negatively associated with collaborative performance. To understand the puzzle of uncertainty and collaborative performance, I take the problem of groundwater management for theory development and empirical testing. Aquifers are being depleted faster than they can recharge, leaving municipalities, irrigators, and ranchers vulnerable to ever-reducing water availability over time, but the management of groundwater problems is wicked because it involves complex social, ecological, scientific, administrative, and political issues. The effectiveness of collaborative governance depends in large part on the way in which stakeholders perceive, interpret, and use uncertain information.This dissertation fills the theoretical and empirical gap by using multi method research design. The first research question is: What are the nature and characteristics of uncertainty in collaborative governance? This question is addressed based on the in-depth case study of Upper San Pedro Watershed Partnership in Arizona, U.S. Based on the various sources of empirical data, including 22 in-depth interviews, policy reports, and local news articles, conceptual typology and theoretical propositions are proposed to develop theories of collaborative governance under uncertainties. Results suggest that scientific and managerial uncertainty are significant and tend to have negative effects on the performance of groundwater management, but the relationship between uncertainty and collaborative performance can be positively or negatively moderated by the quality of relation management including integrative leadership

The goal of this dissertation is to understand the application of collaborative governance as a response to reforestation challenges in rural China and the external and internal factors that affect the collaboration. The emergence of collaborative governance is important for the relationship between state and society in China as the central government attempt to balance between centralization and private initiatives to achieve development goals. Understanding the formation and sustainment of collaborative governance in this context can improve the utilization of this approach to support meaningful participation in governance as well as increase resilience to future social-environmental challenges. The collaboration between a Hong Kong based non-governmental organization (NGO) and the Shilou county government in western Shanxi province, China, is used as a case study for understanding this topic. This study site is located on the eastern part of the Loess Plateau, a region with continental monsoon climate and semi-arid sloped lands. I use the Collaborative Governance Regime framework to analyze how the institutional environment embedded in the system context, the drivers, and the collaborative dynamics interact with key actors to produce actions and outcomes, and how barriers that emerged before and during the collaboration were resolved. The dissertation is primarily based on data gathered during five month-long trips to Shanxi province in 2013, 2014, and from 2017-2018. I used a variety of research methods, including participant observation, open and repeated interviews, shadowing, and secondary data collection. The findings indicate that the success and sustainment of the collaborative governance in Shilou hinged on cross-sector leadership. Through sharing capacity between different levels of the government and key leaders’ ability to build trust, participants gradually gained trust and legitimacy in the decision-making process. As a result, the capacity for joint

The research described herein focuses on understanding the effects of power on the processes and outcomes of collaborative networks. Power is conceptualized from a structural perspective, as the dependence that exists in the relationships that tie network participants together. Using the method of social network analysis, the dissertation first validates a measure of structural power in collaborative networks, betweenness centrality. It then examines the effect of uneven distributions of structural power among participants on an important variable for these networks: cohesion, as measured from a behavioral perspective. This effect is examined from the perspective of two levels of analysis: the whole network level and the working group level. The results indicate that structural power has a variable effect on cohesion, depending on the level of analysis. At the whole network level, uneven distributions of power negatively affect the cohesive behavior of participants. At the working group level, on the other hand, the relationship between the variables is curvilinear. Finally, the effect of structural power on three dimensions of participant satisfaction is examined: process satisfaction, human capital satisfaction, and outcome satisfaction. The research finds that being in a power disadvantaged position affects how participants rate their satisfaction with the process of collaboration.