Manifestations of hybrid accountability in horizontal network governance

Service integration efforts have generated alliances and joint value creation between public, private, and voluntary sectors. In such alliances, joint value creation incentivizes the establishment of horizontal accountability that serves the stakeholder interests of the alliance partners. Establishing horizontal accountability forces network partners to think about how different forms of accountability seen in companies, governments, and voluntary organizations can be simultaneously combined and supported. Formal contracts and shared goals, duties, incentives, and reporting systems reveal how different accountabilities are mixed in network governance. Manifestations of these mixed accountabilities are the main topic of this chapter, which examines how traditional accountabilities in organizations transform into hybrid accountabilities related to public, private, and voluntary sector interests in network governance. More specifically, the investigation focuses on how specific accountabilities, such as social and market accountability, become hybridized. As a contribution, new concepts are offered for analyzing horizontal accountability in network governance.