mapping of stakeholders’ mobilization in cross-border ...€¦ · 1 marsida bandilli mapping of...
Post on 04-Aug-2020
3 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
1
Marsida Bandilli
Mapping Of Stakeholders’ Mobilization In Cross-Border Cooperation Programs
Prepared for the 8th Pan-European Conference on the European Union
Universita degli Studi di Trento
16 – 18 June 2016
(Do not Cite please, work in progress)
ABSTRACT
Research on stakeholders primarily focuses on questions of power and influence in particular
policy fields and governance levels. Recently scholars have also shown a growing interest in the
mobilization of stakeholders. This paper adds to that literature focusing on the mobilization of
stakeholders in a multilevel setting. More in particular, it looks into which actors mobilize in the
context of European Union funding opportunities, more in particular in cross-border
cooperation programmes. Inspired by the theoretical frameworks of multilevel governance and
resource dependency, we look at the operating level of stakeholders, their dependency on EU
funding, their financial means and the policy issues they deal with. Empirically, we use data
regarding the Interreg Flanders-Netherlands Programme (2007-2013). We find that the
operating level of stakeholders, dependency on EU funding, financial means and the policy issues
stakeholders deal with, all trigger differential levels of mobilization.
KEYWORDS
Mobilization, Stakeholders, EU funding, Cross Border Cooperation.
2
MAPPING OF STAKEHOLDERS’ MOBILIZATION IN CROSS-BORDER COOPERATION
PROGRAMMES
Introduction: Mobilization of Stakeholders ........................................................................................... 3
Theoretical Perspectives on Mobilization: the multilevel governance and resource
dependence theory .......................................................................................................................................... 5
Mobilization in the Context of EU Regional Policies and Funding Programs ............................ 7
When do stakeholders mobilize for EU funding? ................................................................................. 8
Case Selection and Data Collection ......................................................................................................... 11
Analysis ............................................................................................................................................................. 13
Conclusions ..................................................................................................................................................... 15
Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................... 17
3
Introduction: Mobilization of Stakeholders
Stakeholders are constitutive actors in public policy, both during decision-making and
implementation stages. They can be defined as “a variety of actors that have an interest in
participating in any given governance process. For instance: private business, voluntary
associations, organized interests, or single-issue pressure groups” (BACHE and FLINDERS, 2004).
For example, an NGO that pleads for environmental protection is a stakeholder in EU
environmental policies and funding programs. The concept of stakeholders is used for different
purposes and in various fields. In this paper we apply the concept in relation to mobilization
with the purpose of influencing or participating in public policies. In this respect, SAVAGE et al.,
(1991) clarify that stakeholders are “actors which have an interest in the actions of an
organization, and they also have the ability to influence it” (SAVAGE et al., 1991, p. 209).
FREEMAN (1984) adds that “…its actions can affect or are affected by the achievements of the
organization’s objectives”. Most of the time “stakeholders make their actual stakes known… or
might be influenced by, or are potentially influencers of some organization whether or not this
influence is perceived or known” (STARIK 1994, p. 90; ROWLEY and MOLDOVEANU, 2003).
Overall, mobilization creates more opportunities for stakeholders to engage in direct contact
with policy makers (BACHE and FLINDERS, 2004).
Mobilization of stakeholders is not a recent phenomenon, it appears with every creation
and implementation of public policies. It concerns a process through which a group evolves from
being a passive collection of individuals to an active participant in public life (TILLY, 1988, p.
69). It has been empirically studied by scholars such as BAUMGARTNER (1998, 2001, 2007),
WITTENBERG (1994); HALPIN and BINDERKRANTZ (2011), KLÜVER (2010) and NADALUTTI
(2013). Authors examined various aspects of stakeholders’ mobilization, for example how the
need for resources drives stakeholders to mobilize (OLSEN, 1965; MCCARTHY and ZALD 1997)
or how not reaching objectives pushes stakeholders to mobilize (ROWLEY and MOLDOVEANU,
2003). Some studies have looked into how a multilevel setting enables mobilization to take place
even more than in other settings (MILBRATH 1963; SALISBURY 1984; SCHLOZMAN 1986;
HOOGHE and MARKS 1996; BAUMGARTNER, 2007; TARROW 2011).
One of the crucial issues to address is the identification of the main drivers for
stakeholders’ mobilization in certain policy domains (GARY and LOWERY, 1996). More in
particular, the search for resources has been suggested as an important trigger to mobilize
(BEYERS and KERREMANS 2007; EISING 2007; BLATTER et al., 2009; HANNEGRAAFF and
4
BEYERS 2013). Resources are vital for stakeholder’s survival and for allowing them to pursue
their claims and goals. Moreover, several types of resources such as financial sources and
selective benefits, legitimacy, facilities and labor are taken into account (MCCARTHY and ZALD,
1977; GRAY and LOWERY, 1996). At the same time, however, some researchers such as MARKS
et al., (1996) didn’t find support for the resources hypothesis.
In addition, stakeholders can mobilize in different policy contexts, both within states and
beyond. One example is the European Union which has increasingly become a crucial player in
public policy-making. Due to the organization of its policy cycle, the European Union attracts
quite a fair deal of attention from stakeholders. Its distinct institutional features triggers a high
level of mobilization (BEYERS and KERREMANS 2007; BINDERKRANTZ, 2008; DÜR and MATEO,
2012). In other words, the European Union has become a venue where stakeholders “represent
their interests, next to the first level of their operation” (EISING, 2007, p. 28). Offices for regional
representation have become a regular occurrence for the Brussels scene (MARKS, 1992; DONAS
and BEYERS, 2012). In a direct or indirect manner the Council of Ministers, the Commission, the
Parliament and other EU level institutions and agencies all stimulated stakeholder’s mobilization
by offering multiple opportunities for access and information exchange (BACHE and FLINDERS,
2004). In short, the process of European integration has generated additional mobilization on
top of what traditionally occurred at the domestic level (BACHE, 2008).
This paper combines the two perspectives: the quest for resources as triggers for
mobilization of stakeholders in the multilevel setting of the EU. More concretely, it examines the
features of stakeholders that mobilize in the context of EU funding opportunities. What kind of
actors mobilize in order to attract EU funding? With the exception of a few analytical studies on
crucial aspects of stakeholder’s involvement in structural funds (DELLMUTH, 2011; DELLMUTH
and STOFFEL, 2012), this issue has been largely left unaddressed. Empirically, we narrow down
our focus to Cross-Border Cooperation Programmes. While such programs attract a substantial
part of stakeholder’s attention, to our knowledge, no one has yet profoundly examined this
particular context. Assessing some of the crucial features that stakeholders display while
participating in EU funding programs allows us to make an original contribution to the
literatures on mobilization and on EU funding.
The paper is structured as follows. First, we present a theoretical framework based on
multilevel governance and resource dependency. Then, we move on to the context of EU regional
policies and structural funding, and more in particular to the area of cross-border cooperation
programs. In the next section we develop our hypotheses. We then elaborate on the methods
and data. The core section is dedicated to our analysis of an original data set that contains
5
information about 788 stakeholders that mobilized for the Interreg Flanders-Netherlands
Program, during the 2007 – 2013 funding period.
Theoretical Perspectives on Mobilization: the multilevel governance and resource
dependence theory
While stakeholder’s mobilization is a crucial feature of public policy-making, authors disagree
about the reasons why it happens (BAUMGARTNER and LEECH, 1998; PFEFFER and SALANICK,
2003). Consensus on a single unified theory has not yet been reached: several dimensions of
stakeholder’s behavior, including the internal dynamics of coalitions, and how the environment
can influence their behavior have been put forward (BAUMGARTNER and LEECH, 1998;
PFEFFER and SALANICK, 2003).
One of the earliest contributions comes from Truman who argued that stakeholders will
most likely mobilize for an issue, if they directly ‘feel’ their interests are threatened (TRUMAN,
1951). This feeling of urgency pressures stakeholders to exploit new channels to mobilize.
However, some of Truman’s main assumptions came under attack. If mobilization was as simple
as Truman described it, one would rather expect stakeholders to mobilize as much as possible
(TILLY, 1988, p. 87). However, empirical observations made clear that stakeholder’s
mobilization can easily get hampered for several reasons, implying a discrepancy between
‘potential’ and ‘actual’ mobilization. Notably the ability to acquire and maintain resources, and a
constantly changing environment were identified as factors affecting mobilization capacities of
stakeholders. OLSON (1965), for instance, has described why some disadvantaged groups would
probably never be able to even reach a fraction of their mobilization potential, producing
inevitably a landscape where a small number of stakeholders consistently dominate (BURSENS,
BEYERS and DONAS, 2014).
In this paper we delve into two dimensions that can mediate the opportunities of
interested stakeholders. The first refers to the complexity of the governance context. Drawing on
the framework of multilevel governance the “complex, multilayered, decision-making process
stretching beneath the state as well as above it” (MARKS, 1992, p. 221) is suggested to affect
potential stakeholders’ chances to become active players. The second points to the idea that
stakeholders try to exploit as many resource venues as they can (PFEFFER and SALANICK 2003;
RAO et al., 2007; MALATESTA, 2014). An additional framework for understanding stakeholder’s
mobilization is therefore the Resource Dependence Theory (RDT). Resources are considered
crucial in shaping stakeholder’s strategies for their maintenance and survival. Stakeholders’
primary need is to survive and to represent their stakes in a consistent way. In doing so, they
6
mainly need to identify where to search for resources, and how to address the requests of each
of their key providers (PFEFFER and SALANICK, 2003; FROELICH, 1999). “A resource is
essentially anything an actor perceives as valuable, whereas dependence is a state in which one
actor relies on another to achieve particular outcomes” (FROOMAN, 1999, p. 5). In an
oversimplified way, stakeholders are not self-contained or self-sufficient. They are constantly
searching for resources in their external environment (EMERSON, 1962; FROOMAN, 1999;
PFEFFER and SALANICK, 2003). It is therefore quite conceivable that stakeholders situate their
arguments in different venues, across a constellation of policy resources.
The focus of this paper is to scrutinize the mobilization of stakeholders in the context of
EU funding opportunities. The insights of multilevel governance and resource dependence
theory provide us with the essential background for developing and testing hypotheses to
answer the research question of this paper: What are the main features of stakeholders that
mobilize for the EU funding, in particular with respect to cross-border cooperation programs?
Mobilization in the Context of EU Regional Policies and Funding Programs
The EU has evolved into a conglomerate of institutions providing strong stimuli for European
regions. Already in the beginning of the 1980s new polices were introduced, promoting
regional representation at the European level. A decade later, this was further reinforced by the
Maastricht Treaty. The introduction of the “Regional Agenda” and of the subsidiarity principle
upgraded the position of regional stakeholders in EU policy processes (TATHAM, 2008). A core
institution in this respect is the European Commission (MAZEY and RICHARDSON, 2002).
Through the use of instruments such as the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and
the European Social Fund (ESF), the Commission has substantially nurtured territorial
cooperation. By transforming territorial cooperation into a top-notch priority, the Commission
has created solid grounds for regional stakeholders (EC, 2006a) to engage in cross-border
cooperation, aimed at reducing the regional disparities between levels of development.
The territorial cooperation objectives of the EU are translated, among others, into cross-
border cooperation programs. Since the Single European Act (1986), four programming periods
have been completed (1989 – 1993, 1994 – 1999, 2000 – 2006 and 2007 – 2013) that created
considerable opportunities for stakeholder’s participation (KOHLER-KOCH and FINKE 2007, p.
160). These programs have urged research to partly shift its traditional focus on stakeholders’
involvement in public policies to patterns of stakeholders’ mobilization in other venues. Indeed,
because stakeholders are rational actors who follow their own interests and agendas (BÖRZEL,
2001), it is expected that they will mobilize for funding opportunities as well. EU funding
7
programs are an explicit example where such mobilization may occur. Within this funding
system, the EC allocates financial support to stakeholders who develop projects which yield the
economic development of border areas in the EU Member states. More precisely, the EU
indirectly finances stakeholders through granting financial support to the projects that
stakeholders jointly develop.
This paper looks at the case of the Interreg Flanders-Netherlands Program, one of the
most elaborated examples of cross-border cooperation, in the programming period 2007 – 2013.
Each program has its own managing institutions. In our case, the principal institution that
assesses whether project proposals of stakeholders meet the overall need of the cross-border
regions, is the Steering Committee (SC). In close collaboration with the Secretariat – the other
crucial institution of this program – the SC develops the main objectives and priorities of each
program call. These managing authorities have a pivotal role in the process. Because they are
directly involved in the setting-up of the program’s priorities, they may also have an effect on the
kind of stakeholders that mobilize. By defining certain priorities and objectives, it is possible to
shift and polarize the mobilization process towards certain kinds of stakeholders. After all,
applications must fit with the program’s objectives and priorities. Stakeholders can submit
project applications alone or in collaboration with other stakeholders. In the program under
scrutiny, stakeholders could require a maximum 50% of the financial needs of their overall
project. This means that applicants are to commit themselves to raise own resources to co-
finance project proposal. The co-financing condition makes it very likely that stakeholders build
coalitions to enhance their chances of success.
Although this paper is limited to Belgian and Dutch stakeholders, it is possible to
translate some of the arguments to other contexts and venues. We are well aware, though, that
some of the main features that stakeholders display when they mobilize, are tied to our case. We
don’t necessarily expect similar outcomes in other cross-border programs, as this would be
contingent on how actor related and context related variables would play out.
When do stakeholders mobilize for EU funding?
In this section we develop four hypotheses, mainly based on the multilevel governance
framework and the resource dependence theory. The first hypothesis is linked to the overall
institutional arrangement and the idea that actors express an interest in opportunities
presented by the institutional environment. The European Commission plays a crucial role in
this process as the instruments it develops may trigger actors to present their requests and
demands, and hence become stakeholders. Providing channels and incentives for societal actors
8
has indeed been found before to steer more mobilization (MEYNAUD and SIDJANSKI, 1971, p.
468; MARKS and MCADAM, 1996; Pollack, 1997; MAZEY and RICHARDSON, 2002; LOWERY,
2007). This also implies that not all sorts of actors are equally prone to get mobilized. We expect
that the sector a stakeholder operates in and the issue it usually mobilizes for determine the
decision to mobilize. From the literature we know that NGOs and business-oriented
stakeholders follow different organizational logics (OLSON, 1965). Business-oriented
stakeholders engage in more risk-taking initiatives that are linked to innovation and economic
advancement (BERLAND, 2014), whereas stakeholders with a nonprofit focus, will invest more
in the development of societal issues (CHALMERS and DELLMUTH, 2015). We therefore expect
that stakeholders who work in social sectors will mobilize more for societal issues, whereas,
stakeholders who work in a market environment will mobilize more for economic issues. We
operationalize this by means of the UN List of Social Sectorsi which classifies stakeholder’s into
societal and economic sectors. We are able to test this hypothesis as the Interreg program has
both societal and economic priorities.
Hypothesis 1: Stakeholders working in social sectors will mobilize more for societal issues,
whereas stakeholders working in economic sectors will mobilize more for economic issues for the
EU Funding
Next, we turn to the multilevel context. Through the European Regional Development
Fund (ERDF), the European Commission offers support for regional economic growth. One of the
objectives, territorial cooperation among regions, is organized by cross-border cooperation
programs which essentially concentrate on building wider cooperation among regional
stakeholders (MARKS et al., 1996). Such programs play an important role in building
partnerships among stakeholders, that otherwise would probably not have been initiated. Also
the requirement to raise own sufficient financial support for projects has triggered coalitions,
sometimes involving quite a large variety of actors. All this feeds the expectation that
stakeholders who work on sub-national levels will mobilize more as they can get more easily ‘in
touch’ with similar stakeholders, even across borders. In some cases, stakeholders may have had
previous experience in building cooperation, fostering even more opportunities to forge
coalitions (FREEMAN et al., 1996; MAHONEY, 2007; KLÜVER, 2010). While it may be relatively
easy to distinguish between levels of mobilization in theory (JEFFREY, 2000; HALPIN and
BINDERKRANTZ, 2011), in practice we measure the level of mobilization by looking at the
stakeholder’s level of operation.ii With this perspective in mind, we expect to encounter more
stakeholders working at sub-national or lower levels than stakeholders that are closely situated
on the European or international level. This results on the second hypothesis:
9
Hypothesis 2: Stakeholders working on sub-national (thus regional, local and provincial)
levels will mobilize more than stakeholders working for European and international levels for the
EU Funding.
The resource dependence theory framework orients our thinking towards a variety of
actors whereby some stakeholders mobilize more than others, contingent on the variety in
resources. There is no doubt in stating that organizations are dependent on resources
(FROOMAN, 1999; PFEFFER and SALANICK, 2003; CASCARIO and PISKORSKI, 2005). Although
resources are vital for all stakeholders’ survival and existence, there are significant differences
in the level of dependency. Compared to firms, NGOs tend relatively more to develop a direct
dependency on external resources as NGOs are mainly non-profit driven, whereas business
oriented stakeholders have incentives for developing as profit-maximizers (FROOMAN, 1999, p.
8; EISING, 2007). Following the same reasoning, it is easier for business-oriented stakeholders to
make a profit out of their activities, thus to develop a more limited dependency on external
resources. In addition, there are differences tied to the ability of stakeholders to continue normal
functioning when resources are absent (PFEFFER and SALANICK, 2003). Hence, if an NGO
doesn’t mobilize for resources, this could have detrimental effects on the continuation of its
mission and work, as opposed to stakeholders that are making profits out of their activities.
Looking at mobilization from a resource dependency perspective makes clear that EU
funding opportunities are simply another venue where stakeholders look for resources. Because
the clear link between the stakeholder type and the level of dependency we expect to encounter
less mobilization from the side of stakeholders that have an “indirect” dependency on EU
funding. The opposite also stands, namely stakeholders that have a more “direct” dependency,
will tend to mobilize more for EU funding. This implies that firms, companies and other
business-oriented stakeholders will emerge far less in our dataset. Hence our third hypothesis:
Hypothesis 3: Stakeholders that have a “direct” dependency on resources, will mobilize
more than stakeholders that have an “indirect” dependency on resources for the EU Funding
Moreover, resource dependencies generate greater discrepancies between states and
regions (BEYERS and KERREMANS, 2007). EU funding instruments are explicitly established by
the EU to foster economic development of peripheral regions.iii This makes regions and
provinces even more unevenly dependent on EU funding. Building on the concept of ‘core-
periphery’ equilibrium (HOPKINS and WALLERSTEIN, 1982; FORSLID, 2000; DAVIS and
WEINSTEIN, 2001; BALDWIN and GARDINER et al., 2004; EGGER et al., 2013), we consider the
EU as being traditionally preoccupied with achieving a more equilibrated growth among its
10
regions. Since the beginning of the 1980s, some core regions have constantly been scoring
higher growth rates, in comparison with others from the periphery of the European map. For
this paper we examine the differences in growth rates between the most advanced- (thus core)
provinces and the least developed (thus periphery) provinces of each partner. Our expectation is
that stakeholders will mobilize differently. Resource dependence theory tells us that the
“periphery” provinces will depend more on EU funding than the “core” provinces. In order to
classify the actors we consider the provincial level (NUTS 2) and create an ordered rank in
relation to the GDP per capita that these provinces display for 2007 (the starting date of the
funding period under consideration)iv. This results in the following and final hypothesis:
Hypothesis 4: Stakeholders from “periphery” provinces will mobilize for EU funding more
than stakeholders from “core” provinces
Case Selection And Data Collection
Guided by the expectations developed in the previous paragraph, this paper analyses which
actors mobilize to take part in EU funding, more specifically with respect to cross-border
cooperation programmes. The focus is mainly on the features displayed by stakeholders who
actually mobilize. Our case is the Interreg Flanders-Netherlands Programme, for the 2007–2013
funding period. We obtained a dataset from the Secretariat Office of Interreg Flanders-
Netherlands Programme containing the list of stakeholders that participated in the program, i.e.
that mobilized by submitting project proposals to the program.
Based on the original data we constructed a new extensive data set which contains
information about all the stakeholders that have mobilized, with respect to the type of actor, the
sector they operate in and the level they are situated on. These data stem from the procedures
followed by the Office Secretariat that initiates a specific call within the wider program, making
this accessible for everyone on the website. From the project applications we can derive who the
submitting stakeholders are and what distinct features they display. Our coding scheme
followed a rigorous procedure and built on previous work by HANEGRAAFF (2013). All the
necessary information about the stakeholders and their activities was obtained through coding
information of the actors’ individual websites. More precisely, we coded the geographical
location (country, region, and province), the type of stakeholder, the social sector (based on the
UN List of Social Sectors)v. Because websites are periodically updated, we carried out a careful
re-coding procedure over time: data collection was performed from September 2014 to June
2015.
11
In addition, we also have data on the patterns of collaboration among the stakeholders
and on whether their application was successful or not. The unit of analysis in this paper is the
individual stakeholder that engaged in submitting a project proposal.
Our investigation spans 7-years (2007–2013). In total, 788 stakeholders were identified
as having mobilized for the program. Each of these actors submitted, alone or in collaboration
with others, a project proposal for one of the three main program priorities: economy,
environment or societal issues. Table 1 presents the basic information about the distribution of
stakeholders according to the country, indicating an almost equal distribution of stakeholders
between both countries (54,4% of stakeholders are based in Belgium and 44,4% are working the
Netherlands, whereas only 1,1% have either a European or an international character).
INSERT TABLE 1 HERE
Clearly, one of the main advantages for this paper is that our data consists of a full data
set of participating stakeholders. As it is not feasible to trace all stakeholders that could have
mobilized but chose not to do so, we only look at the “actual” mobilization, not the “potential”
mobilization. Therefore our focus is not on explaining who mobilized and who did not mobilize,
but on examining the main features of stakeholders that have mobilized. Hence, this is primarily
an explorative empirical study that aims to gain more insight in how mobilization occurs for a
broad range of stakeholders. Nevertheless, the size of the data set allows for simple quantitative
analyses. In the next section we present descriptive and bivariate correlations to test for the
hypotheses formulated above.
Analysis
We started out from the assumption that actors will mobilize when they have a ‘stake’ in the
matter. Applied to our case: if an actor sees an opportunity in a particular funding program, it
becomes a stakeholder. As we have no data on the ‘non mobilizers’, we tested this hypothesis
within the available data set by correlating the sector of participating stakeholder with the
theme of the call. Hence, we hypothesized that societally oriented stakeholders would submit
more proposals to the societally related calls, while economic actors would be more interested
in the economy-related calls of the program. In other words, we investigated for which of the
three program priorities, stakeholders submitted applications. In the program period under
scrutiny there were three main themes: Economy, Environment and People to People (the latter
referring to Societal Matters)vi. We used the UN List of Social Sectors to classify the social sector
12
of each stakeholder. Here we evaluated the relationship between two variables: the social sector
of the stakeholders and the main theme it mobilizes for in the program under scrutiny. Table 2
shows a strong correlation between the two variables (Spearman’s correlation coefficient Rs is
1.161, significant at the 0.01 level), indicating that stakeholders working on social issues have
submitted their project applications mostly for calls related to the environmental and societal
priorities. Alternatively, stakeholders are working on economic issues submitted their proposals
within the economy priority. These results indicate that actors respond to opportunities related
to their core business. However, in the theoretical part we argued that having a stake is not
sufficient to actually mobilize. We hypothesize that governance levels and resources also matter
to make the decision to become active, meaning in our case to submit a project proposal to a
specific call. In the next paragraphs we test for these additional features.
INSERT TABLE 2 HERE
Table 3 presents the data on the distribution of stakeholders according to the type and
the level of mobilization. Institutions (N=217), Public Authorities (N=216) and Non-Profit
Organizations (N=175) are by far the stakeholders that have mobilized the most. In addition,
Table 3 points out that most of the stakeholders work on sub-national levels, namely local,
provincial and regional levels, whereas only a few of them operate on European, international or
a mix of levels. Therefore, we find a strong confirmation for our second hypothesis, which
expressed the expectation that the level of the organization matters. Clearly the multilevel
character of the EU funding context triggers the participation of actors of particular governance
levels.
INSERT TABLE 3 HERE
We also find a strong confirmation for the third hypothesis. Most of the stakeholders that
have mobilized are the ones that have developed a more direct dependency from EU funding.
Table 4 shows that the three largest types of stakeholders that mobilized are non-profit
organizations (22,2%), Public Authorities (27,4%), and Institutions (27,5%)vii. These
stakeholders are mainly non-profit based, meaning that they have more direct dependency on
funding in general and EU funding in particular to carry out projects or to achieve their
organizational objectives. Moreover, the profit-maximizer actors are far less represented: 12,9%
of all the mobilized stakeholders are firms, 0,3% are peak business associations and 4,2% are
sectoral business associations. These actors are less or indirectly dependent on EU funding:
because of their business nature, they are more able to generate resources in other ways.
Another factor that may explain their low mobilization is that business-oriented stakeholders
were only eligible for the first time to apply for Interreg Flanders Netherlands in the period
13
2007–2013. Perhaps, it takes some time to learn and to convincingly convey their arguments,
but this can only be tested when data on the current funding period become available.
INSERT TABLE 4 HERE
Finally, we looked into the resource level of the stakeholders, expecting that actors from
less prosperous areas would apply more than actors from relatively more wealthy areas. Table 5
explains how we computed the ranking ordered correlation. We ranked the provinces according
to the representation of stakeholders, meaning that the more stakeholders are working in a
particular province, the more the province is represented and thus mobilized. Second, we
created an ordered ranking of provinces, relating to their GDP per capita, using Eurostat Dataviii
at the NUTS 2 level. These data were available from 2007 until 2011. Since there are no strong
fluctuations in the GDP per capita levels over the years, we decided to use the 2007 data for our
analysis. For clarification, we eliminated the categories Other and Mixedix Provinces. Table 5
describes the results.
INSERT TABLE 5 HERE
We hypothesized that those stakeholders that are working in more peripheral provinces
are more dependent on the EU funding, and thus will mobilize more, while stakeholders coming
from core provinces will be less dependent on EU funding, and therefore will mobilize less. The
Kendall’s tau b correlation tells us if there is a significant correlation between the core-periphery
variable and mobilization. Clearly, Table 6 shows that there is not a significant correlation
between the two variables: there is no correlation between the province where a stakeholder
works and its actual mobilization for EU funding. The less prosperous and therefore more
resource dependent provinces are not necessarily the ones that mobilize the most. This suggests
limits to the resource dependency theory.
INSERT TABLE 6 HERE
14
Conclusions
This paper examined the features of stakeholders that mobilize for European Union funding
opportunities, with regard to cross-border cooperation programmes, more in particular the
Interreg Flanders-Netherlands Program for the 2007 – 2013 time frame. The paper contributes
to the literature that deals with the mobilization of stakeholders in a multilevel setting. We
generated our arguments based on the main claims of the multilevel governance and resource
dependence theory and illustrated that the operating level of stakeholders, their dependency on
EU funding, their financial means and the policy issues they deal with, triggers differential levels
of mobilization.
Our findings indicate that having a stake in EU funding programs is not sufficient to
actually mobilize. We showed empirically that mobilization is also triggered by the multilevel
setting in which such actors operate. We found that most stakeholders that work on sub-
national and national levels, will mobilize more often for EU Funding than actors from higher
governance levels. We also found that NGOs and societal actors that are situated in the non-
profit sphere mobilize more, confirming our hypothesis that having direct dependencies on EU
funding triggers activities targeting these funding programs. On the contrary, because of their
profit-driven profile, market oriented (economic) actors mobilize far less as they develop more
indirect dependencies on EU funding. Surprisingly, the empirical analysis does not support the
expectation that stakeholders that work in periphery provinces mobilize more. While the
European Commission developed such programs to reduce disparities between regions,
stakeholders from most prosperous regions are found to apply more. Hence, resource
dependency helps to understand mobilization when looking at capabilities of individual actors,
but not when looking at where they are located.
The results of this research are a first step towards more in-depth case studies focusing
on the mobilization of individual stakeholders. Because the literature so far has produced only
little knowledge on the determinants of the allocation of structural funds within regions
(DELLMUTH and STOFFEL, 2012), a next step to be taken is to explore why stakeholders within
those regions receive the funds, whereas others do not. In addition further investigation on
stakeholder’s collaborations for coalition-formation processes that occur when mobilizing for
the EU funding schemes, deserve scholarly attention.
15
Bibliography
BACHE I. (2008) Europeanization and Multi-level Governance: Cohesion Policy in the European
Union and Britain, Lanham (US) and Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield (201 pages).
BACHE I., and FLINDERS M. V. (2004) Multi-level governance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
BALDWIN R. E. and FORSLID R. (2000) The Core-Periphery Model and Endogenous Growth:
Stabilizing and Destabilizing Integration, Economica, 67, 307 – 324.
BAUMGARTNER F. and LEECH B. (1998) Basic interests. The Importance of Groups in Politics
and Political Science. UK: Princeton University Press.
BAUMGARTNER F. and LEECH B. (2001) Interest Niches and Policy Bandwagons: Patterns of
Interest Group Involvement in National Politics. The Journal of Politics, Vol 63, No 4, 1191 –
1213.
BAUMGARTNER F. R. (2007) EU Lobbying: A View From The Us, Journal of European Public
Policy, 14:3, 482-488, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13501760701243830.
BERLAND E. (2014) Edelman trust barometer (14th annual trust and credibility survey). New
York, NY: Edelman Berland.
BEYERS J. and KERREMANS B. (2007) Critical resource dependencies and the Europeanization
of domestic interest groups, Journal of European Public Policy, 14:3, 460-481, DOI:
10.1080/13501760701243822.
BINDERKRANTZ A. (2008) Different Groups, Different Strategies: How Interest Groups Pursue
Their Political Ambitions, Nordic Political Science Association, 31 (2), ISSN 0080–6757.
16
BLATTER J., KREUTZER M., RENTL and THIELE J. (2009) Preconditions for Foreign Activities of
European Regions: Tracing Causal Configurations of Economic, Cultural, and Political Strategies,
Publius: The Journal of Federalism, (40) 1, 171-199doi:10.1093/publius/pjp024.
BÖRZEL T. (2001) How the European Union interacts with its Member States, Institute for
Advanced Studies, Vienna.
BURSENS P., BEYERS J., and DONAS T. (2014) Domestic European Union Coordination and
Interest Group Mobilization in Three Member States: Looking Beyond the Formal Mechanisms,
Regional & Federal Studies, 24:3, 363-381, DOI: 10.1080/13597566.2014.911739.
CASCARIO T. and PISKORSKI M. J. (2005) Power Imbalance, Mutual Dependence, and Constraint
Absorption: A Closer Look at Resource Dependence Theory, Administrative Science Quaterly,
(50) 2, 167 – 199, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30037190.
CHALMERS W. A. and DELLMUTH M. L. (2015) Fiscal redistribution and public support for
European integration, European Union Politics, (16) 3, 386 – 407, DOI:
10.1177/1465116515581201.
DAVIS D. R. and WEINSTEIN D. E. (2001) The Factor Content of Trade, National Bureau of
Economic Research, NBER Working Paper No. 8637.
DELLMUTH M. L. (2011) The cash divide: The allocation of European Union regional grants,
Journal of European Public Policy, (18) 7, 1016-33.
17
DELLMUTH M. L. and STOFFEL M. F. (2012) Distributive politics and intergovernmental
transfers: The local allocation of European Union Structural Funds, European Union Politics, (13)
3, 413 – 33.
DONAS T. and BEYERS J. (2012) How Regions Assemble in Brussels: The Organizational Form of
Territorial Representation in the European Union, Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 1 – 24,
doi:10.1093/publius/pjs042.
DÜR A. and MATEO G. (2012) Who lobbies the European Union? National interest groups in a
multilevel polity, Journal of European Public Policy, 19:7, 969-987.
EGGER P. H. and PFAFFERMAYR M. (2013) The Pure Effects of European Integration on Intra-EU
Core and Periphery Trade, The World Economy, doi: 10.1111/twec.12065.
EISING R. (2007) Institutional Context, Organizational Resources and Strategic Choices.
Explaining Interest Group Access in the European Union, European Union Politics, (8) 3, 329–
362, DOI: 10.1177/1465116507079542.
EMERSON R. M. (1962) Power-Dependence Relations, American Sociological Review, (27) 1, 31 –
41, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2089716.
FREEMAN R. E. (1984) Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. Boston, MA: Pitman.
FREEMAN R. E., HARRISON S. J., WICKS C. A., PARMAR B., and DE COLLE S. (1996) Stakeholder
Theory. The State of Art, Cambridge University Press.
FROELICH K. A. (1999) Diversification of Revenue Strategies: Evolving Resource Dependence in
Non-profit Organizations, Nonprofit Voluntary Sector Quaterly, (28) 3, 246 – 268.
18
FROOMAN J. (1999) Stakeholder Influence Strategies, Academy of Management Review, (24) 2,
191 – 205.
GARDINER B., MARTIN R., and TYLER P. (2004) Competitiveness, Productivity and Economic
Growth across the European Regions, Regional Studies, (38) 9, 1045 – 1067.
GRAY V. and LOWERY D. (1996) The Population Ecology of Interest Representation: Lobbying
Communities in the American States, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
HALPIN D. R. and BINDERKRANTZ A. S. (2011) Explaining breadth of policy engagement:
patterns of interest group mobilization in public policy. Journal of European Public Policy, 18(2),
201–219. doi:10.1080/13501763.2011.544499.
HANEGRAAFF M. and BEYERS J. (2013) Explaining Transnational Advocacy: The Importance of
Resources, Networking and Organizational Ecology, Paper prepared for the ECPR Conference in
Bordeaux, 4-7 September 2013.
HOOGHE L. and MARKS G. (1996). Europe with the Regions, Channels of Regional
Representation in the European Union.pdf. (n.d.).
HOPKINS T. K. and WALLERSTEIN I. (1982) World-Systems Analysis. Theory and Methodology,
USA: Sage Publications.
JEFFREY CH. (2000) Sub-National Mobilization and European Integration: Does it Make any
Difference?, Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 38, No. 1, 1-23.
KLÜVER H. (2010) Europeanization of Lobbying Activities: When National Interest Groups Spill
Over to the European Level, Journal of European Integration, 32:2, 175-191, DOI:
10.1080/07036330903486037. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07036330903486037.
19
KOHLER-KOCH B. and FINKE B. (2007) The Institutional Shaping of EU-Society Relations: A
Contribution to Democracy via Participation?, Journal of Civil Society, 3:3, 205-221, DOI:
10.1080/17448680701775630, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17448680701775630.
LOWERY D. (2007) Why Do Organized Interests Lobby? A Multi-Goal, Multi-Context Theory of
Lobbying, Polity, (39) 1.
MAHONEY CH. (2007). Networking vs. Allying: The Decision of Interest Groups to Join Coalitions
in the US and the EU, Journal of European Public Policy 14 (3): 366–83.
MALATESTA D. (2014) Lessons from Resource Dependence Theory for Contemporary Public
and Nonprofit Management, Public Administration Review, (74) 1, 14 – 25, DOI:
10.1111/puar.12181.
MARKS G. (1992) Structural Policy in the European Community, in A. Sbragia (ed.), The Political
Consequences of 1992 for the European Community, Washington D.C., The Brookings Institution.
MARKS G. and MCADAM D. (1996). Social Movements and the Changing Structure of Political
Opportunity in the European Union, West European Politics, 18(2), 249–78.
MARKS G., NIELSEN F., RAY L., and SALK E. J. (1996) Competences, Cracks and Conflicts.
Regional Mobilization in the European Union, Comparative Political Studies, (29) 2, 164 – 192.
MAZEY S. and RICHARDSON J. (2002) Pluralisme ouvert ou restraint? Les groups d’intérêt dans
l'Union européenne, in R. Balme, D. Chabanet and V. Wright (eds.), L'action collective en Europe.
Paris: Presses de Sciences Po, 123-162.
MCCARTHY JOHN D. and ZALD MAYER N. (1977) Resource Mobilization and Social Movements:
A Partial Theory, American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 82, No. 6, 1212-1241.
20
MEYNAUD J. and SIDJANSKI D. (1971) Pressure groups in the European Community, published
by the Institute of Sociology, Brussels: 216 – 219.
MILBRATH L. W. (1963) The Washington Lobbyists, Rand MCnally: Chicago.
NADALUTTI E. (2013). Does the ‘European Grouping of Territorial Co-operation’ promote
Multilevel Governance within the European Union?, JCMS, (51) 4, 756–771 DOI:
10.1111/jcms.12014.
OLSON M. (1965) The Logic of Collective Action. Harvard Economic Studies. Harvard University
Press.
PFEFFER J. and SALANICK R. G. (2003) The external control of organizations. A Resource
Dependence Perspective, Stanford University Press.
POLLACK M. A. (1997) Representing diffuse interests in EC policy-making, Journal of European
Public Policy, 4:4, 572-590, DOI: 10.1080/135017697344073.
RAO M. T., BROWN V. C., and PERKINS W. C. (2007) Host Country Resource Availability and
Information System Control Mechanisms in Multinational Corporations: An Empirical Test of
Resource Dependence Theory, Journal of Management Information Systems , (23) 4, 11–28.
ROWLEY T. I. and MOLDOVEANU M. (2003) When will stakeholder groups act? An interest and
identity-based model of stakeholder group mobilization, Academy of Management Review, Vol.
28, No. 2, 204-219.
SALISBURY H. R. (1984) The Dominance of Institutions, American Political Science Association,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1961249.
21
SAVAGE G. T., NIX T. W., WHITEHEAD C. J., and BLAIR J. D. (1991). Strategies for Assessing and
Managing Organizational Stakeholders, Academy of Management Executive, 5/2: 61–75.
SCHLOZMAN L. K. and TIERNEY. J. T. (1986). Organized Interests and American Democracy.
STARIK M. (1994). Essay by Mark Starik: The Toronto Conference: Reflections on Stakeholder
Theory, Business & Society, 33(1): 89–95.
TARROW S. (2011) Power in Movement. Social Movements and Contentious Politics, Third
Edition: Cambridge University Press.
TATHAM M. (2008) Going Solo: Direct Regional Representation in the European Union, Regional
and Federal Studies, (18) 5, 493-515, DOI: 10.1080/13597560802351523.
TILLY. CH. (1988) From Mobilization to Revolution, First Edition. Random House: New York
TRUMAN. D. (1951) The governmental process. Political Interests and Public Opinion, New York:
Knopf. Union and Britain (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield).
WITTENBERG E. (1994) How to Win in Washington, 2nd ed. Cambridge: Basil Blackwell.
i http://unstats.un.org/unsd/cr/registry/regcst.asp?Cl=27 ii For example, if an NGO has its offices in Antwerp, but works at the national levels, we coded it as a national
stakeholder – meaning that it spreads its work and influence all across Belgium, not simply in the city where the office
is located. iii http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/policy/cooperation/european-territorial/cross-border/ iv Information was deducted from Eurostat Website: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database v For more information, see the UN Website: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/cr/registry/regcst.asp?Cl=27 vi The Interreg Flanders-Netherlands Programme website, provides with more details:
http://www.grensregio.eu/english/ vii We coded as Institutions: foundations, university colleges, and other stakeholders that have a non-profit stake. viii Information was deducted from Eurostat Website: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database ix Other means that the actor is working in other provinces, than the ones eligible for the programme. Mixed means
the actor is working in more than one province, thus multiple provinces.
Table 1. Number of participating Stakeholders according to the Country
Country Frequency Percent
Belgium 429 54,4
The Netherlands 350 44,4
Other 9 1,1
Total 788 100,0
Source: Author Table 2. Spearman’s Correlation for the Social Sector of Stakeholders (using the UN List of Social Sectors) and the Programme’s main themes (where stakeholders submit their applications)
The Spearman’s Rho Correlation Results
The Social
Sector of the
Stakeholder
The Programme
Priority
The Social Sector of the
Stakeholder
CorrelationCoefficient 1,000 ,161**
Sig. (1-tailed) . ,000
N 788 788 The Programme Priority CorrelationCoefficient ,161** 1,000
Sig. (1-tailed) ,000 .
N 788 788
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (1-tailed)
Table 3. Stakeholder’s distribution according to their type and level of mobilization
Level
Type of Actor
Total
Non-
Profit Firm Institution
Peak
Business
Associatio
n
Profession
al
Association
Public
Authority
Research
Institute/
Univ
Sectoral
Business
Association Other
Local 36 14 38 0 2 115 3 2 0 210
Provincial 83 24 103 0 3 51 4 13 0 281
Regional 32 11 39 1 4 22 19 7 0 135
122 National 17 34 28 1 5 26 0 11 0
European 5 3 7 0 1 2 0 0 2 20
International 1 16 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 18
Mixed 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
Total 175 102 217 2 15 216 26 33 2 788
Source: Author
Table 4. Stakeholder’s distribution according to the their sector and country–direct vs indirect
dependency towards the EU Funding
Table 5. The ranking of stakeholder’s representation in relation to the provinces where they work; and the ranking of the GDP per capita for those provinces (using the NUTS 2 level from the Eurostat data, 2007)
Provinces Distribution Provinces Distribution
Ranked
GDPperCapita (2007)
Provinces GDP Ranked
Antwerpen 12,90% 1 37.000 1
North Brabant (NL) 10,80% 2 34.600 2
Flemish Brabant 5,50% 8 33.400 3
West Flanders (BE) 5,50% 7 30.200 6
East Flanders 7,90% 4 28.500 7
Limburg (NL) 6,70% 6 31.200 5
Zeeland (NL) 7,10% 5 31.900 4
Limburg (BE) 9,40% 3 26.300 8
Source: author’s own database and the Eurostat Database – Gross Domestic Products Indicators (http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database)
Table 6. The results of Kendall’s Tau B, - a Ranked Order Correlation for Provinces(accordingly with stakeholder’s representation from these provinces) and their richness (accordingly with the GDP per capita based on the NUTS 2 level)
The Kendall’s Tau B Ranked Correlation Results The Provinces
Distribution
Ranked
The Provinces
GDP
Ranked
The Provinces
Distribution
Ranked
CorrelationCoefficient 1,000 ,143
,621 Sig. (2-tailed) .
N 8 8
The Provinces
GDP
Ranked
CorrelationCoefficient ,143 1,000
. Sig. (2-tailed) ,621
N 8 8
top related