Interorganizational governance structures of long-term programmatic infrastructure collaborations

Programmatic collaborations in which public and private parties collaborate for series of projects over a longer period are increasingly applied in the construction sector as an approach to address societal challenges such as innovation and sustainability. In a sector used to project-based collaborations, the implementation of such a programmatic approach comes with several challenges. In this paper, the implications of programmatic collaboration for governing the interorganizational relationships are explored by means of a comparative case study of two Dutch infra-structure programmes. The results imply that there is a strong need to adapt current, project-based governance structures to truly enable programmatic collaboration. In balancing contractual and relational aspects in procurement phase, it seems beneficial to include informal arrangements and allow for adjustments as the long-term contract progresses. Overall, expected benefits of a programmatic approach seem attractive, also because of the long-term collaborative benefits for learning and innovation.