Cross-Sector Collaboration for Sustainable Development

Cross-sector collaboration for sustainable development refers to partnerships that bring together actors from public, private and civil society sectors to address complex environmental and social challenges that cannot be solved by one sector alone. Such collaborations leverage the complementary resources, expertise and mandates of diverse organisations, aiming to generate integrated solutions across multiple scales. Key dimensions include governance structures that balance power and accountability, mechanisms for knowledge sharing and joint decision-making, and adaptive processes to navigate uncertainty and emergent risks. Collaborative initiatives often target systemic change by aligning objectives with global goals, such as the Sustainable Development Goals, while also addressing local priorities and contexts. Practical applications range from multi-stakeholder efforts on circular economy and supply chain decarbonisation to urban resilience projects and public health alliances. Effective cross-sector partnerships foster mutual learning, cultivate trust and develop governance frameworks that accommodate differing organisational logics. Recent research highlights the importance of issue specificity, innovation in alliance management capabilities, and the creation of engagement logics that reconcile diverse value frames. As the scale of sustainability challenges grows, cross-sector collaboration emerges as an indispensable strategy to catalyse transformative change and co-create resilient, equitable socio-ecological systems.

Research from Nature Portfolio

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Cross-Sector Collaboration for Sustainable Development publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in cross-sector collaboration for sustainable development across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Cross-sector collaboration: Formal alliances between organisations from multiple sectors (public, private and civil society) to address complex challenges that no single entity can solve alone.

Theoretical interstices: Underserved conceptual spaces between established theories where new interdisciplinary insights can be developed.

Engagement logic: A co-created framework that harmonises diverse organisational value systems through shared dimensions such as salience, instrumentality, temporality and language.

Organisational logics: Deeply held value frames and rationalities that shape an organisation’s goals, decision-making processes and practices.

Configurational analysis: A methodological approach that examines how combinations of mechanisms and contextual factors produce different partnership outcomes.

References

1. Configurations of sustainability‐oriented textile partnerships. Business Strategy and the Environment (2023).
2. Alliance management capabilities in sustainability‐oriented collaboration: Problematization and new research directions. International Journal of Management Reviews (2023).
3. Engagement logics: How partners for sustainability‐oriented innovation manage differences between organizational logics. Journal of Product Innovation Management (2024).
4. Cross‐Sector Partnership Research at Theoretical Interstices: Integrating and Advancing Theory across Phases. Journal of Management Studies (2024).