The role of brokerage behavior in the development of shared understanding in the Dutch cross-sector partnership: An in-depth qualitative case study

One of the main challenges that cross-sector partnerships (CSPs) face is developing a shared understanding among diverse parties, which is essential for effective collective action. Notable gaps within the existing literature are a limited focus on proactive actors who affect this process, and examinations of CSPs as homogenous units, where a single partnership-level shared understanding is developed. Therefore, we advocate for a relational perspective, specifically brokerage behaviors, which could enhance our understanding of the development of shared understanding within and across task-oriented groups in CSPs. Through a qualitative case study, we aimed to examine how diverse brokerage behaviors manifest in CSPs, and how do they affect the development of a shared understanding. We identified diverse connecting brokerage behaviors facilitating the development of shared understanding within task-oriented groups, mediating brokerage behaviors occurring across disconnected groups for cross-group alignment, as well as emotion-evoking and rationalized contents of shared understanding. In addition, we theorize a relationship between various brokerage behaviors and contents of shared understanding.