Transnational public sector knowledge networks: A comparative study of contextual distances

As governments work to prevent, mitigate, or solve problems of global concern, they increasingly need to exchange knowledge and information among the expert organizations responsible for policies and programs that address them. We call these working arrangements transnational public sector knowledge networks (TPSKNs). The actors in these networks exist within their own informational, organizational, and national contexts and they need to find ways to interact effectively with counterparts who are embedded in different contexts. In this research, we show how understanding these differences, or contextual distances, can help assess, design, and manage TPSKNs. The paper compares two such networks, in environmental quality and public health, across nine contextual distances. All distances were present in both cases despite differences in focus, participants, and time frame. A variety of strategies and tools served to narrow, bridge, or capitalize on these distances thus helping the networks achieve desirable results.