Everyone wants to collaborate, but not everyone crosses boundaries : A qualitative study of how institutional logics influences intersectoral collaboration for social innovations in Sweden

Abstract: Previous research has shown that institutional logics are the frame of reference used by individuals to make sense of their everyday life. This thesis aims to understand how such logics are displayed by actors in the public, private and non-profit sector and how they influence the construction of intersectoral collaboration for social innovation in a Swedish context. The aim is fulfilled through the research questions (i) How are institutional logics expressed by the informants? (ii) Do the interpretations of the ideal institutional logics influence the construction of boundary work? This is analyzed through the framework of boundary work.  This qualitative study was conducted through in-depth interviews with ten actors working in different sectors all participating in a coalition hosted by Mötesplats Social Innovation. The empirics demonstrate that the respondents display logics through four sub-themes; economic resources, incentives for activities through meaningfulness, source of authority and salient values. Various logics in the three sectors result in differences between the sectors. These differences lead to an advantage for intersectoral collaboration; thus, sectors hold different competencies and resources, resulting in fruitful collaboration, but also come with disadvantages such as unclear responsibilities, causing hindrance to collaborate. Actors base their actions in accordance with prevailing characteristics within the logic of their sector. Some characteristics overlap between sectors, and this answers research question two. Similar sectors tend to collaborate more than others, in this case, the public and non-profit, based on similar salient values and incentives for activities through meaningfulness but also due to a dependency from the non-profit sector’s side on the public sector for achieving economic resources. Further, logics create hindrances for intersectoral collaboration through its material attributes and lack of financial resources seems as the main hindrance to collaborate intersectoral for social innovation.