Through a thematic analysis on major themes researched in network governance and collaborative governance, this paper identifies the entangled relationship between these two research streams. We note the common and distinct themes in these two research streams that reveal four entanglements in the research and practice of network governance and collaborative governance. We propose future research could focus more on the implementation and comparative studies, adopting microperspectives of collaborative governance and network governance at the grass-root level in juxtaposition with interorganizational and institutional levels that are led by non-public actors for value co-creation in different institutional contexts.

Studies on dynamics of power relationship play a significant role in the collaborative governance literature because many issues and challenges in collaborative governance can be linked to power asymmetry in collaboration. This article proposes a contingency framework on power asymmetry in collaborative governance that includes six contingency factors of power sharing from contextual, network, and node perspectives. We focus on how each contingency factor influences the relationship between power sharing and the effectiveness of collaborative governance and suggest that, instead of focusing on the attempt to balance power and share power in collaboration, it will be more fruitful to design and implement collaborative arrangements based on the dynamic contingencies.

Power and trust are two important issues of interorganizational relations in collaborative governance. This article develops a critical conceptual analysis of the dyadic relationship between power and trust in the context of collaborative governance. Three dynamic relationships and seven corresponding propositions are proposed regarding the shared sources of power and trust, the effects of power asymmetry and power sharing on trust building, and the influence of trust building on the management of power relationship in collaborative governance. These dyadic relations will help scholars and practitioners to deal with the dynamics brought forth by power and trust in collaboration.

This article aims to move collaborative governance research beyond a fragmented consensus on its enigmatic nature by comprehensively and systematically extricating and codifying different paradoxes and proposing both paradox-handling mechanisms and paradox-based research agendas. We present a framework consisting of paradoxes between normative principles, paradoxes between normative principles and real-life practices, and paradoxes in the real-life practices of collaborative governance. We discuss how to handle these inherent paradoxes and propose research agendas for scholars and practical guidance for administrators based on the paradox perspective, which will enrich collaborative governance research and practices.

Public–private collaborations have the potential to effectively respond to extreme events. However, traditional public–private collaborations that are usually led by governmental actors often encounter significant difficulties in a crisis. Based on a case study of a public–private collaboration dealing with COVID-19 in China, we explore how a private actor emerges as a leader to initiate and manage a public–private collaboration in the crisis, and how stakeholders in this collaboration work together to effectively handle the crisis. The findings indicate critical characteristics and contingencies when a private actor leads the cross-sector collaboration to effectively cope with uncertainties and deliver public services in crisis time.