The reputational dividends of collaborating with a highly reputable agency: The case of interagency collaboration between the U.S. FDA and its domestic partner agencies

• Published date: 01 May 2023
• Author: Moshe Maor,Raanan Sulitzeanu‐Kenan,Meital Balmas
• Date: 01 May 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13597

RESEARCH ARTICLE

The reputational dividends of collaborating with a highly

reputable agency: The case of interagency collaboration

between the U.S. FDA and its domestic partner agencies

Moshe Maor

1

| Raanan Sulitzeanu-Kenan

2

| Meital Balmas

3

1

Department of Political Science, Hebrew

University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

2

The Federmann School of Public Policy, The

Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem,

Israel

3

Department of Communication and Journalism,

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem,

Israel

Correspondence

Moshe Maor, Department of Political Science,

Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus,

Jerusalem 91905, Israel.

Email: moshe.maor@mail.huji.ac.il

Abstract

What reputational dividends in the media, if any, do federal agencies reap from

collaboration with a highly reputable agency, such as the U.S. Food and Drug

Administration (FDA)? Utilizing a dataset covering 30 U.S. federal agencies over a

period of 34 years (1980–2013), we estimate the short and long-term reputational

effects of interagency collaboration. Collaboration is measured by the number of

memorandums of understanding in effect between each agency and the FDA,

while agency reputation in the media is assessed using an automated measure of

media-coverage valence (positive/negative tone) for each agency-year. To account

for potential reverse and reciprocal causality, we utilize cross-lagged fixed-effects

models. We find evidence of moderate rises in reputation in the media due to

increased collaboration with the FDA. These effects persist significantly for 2 years

following the end of the collaboration, before declining to null after 4 years.

Employing similar analyses, we furthermore estimate reverse causality—of reputa-

tion in the media on the level of consequent collaboration—finding no evidence

of such effects.

Evidence for practice

•Interagency collaboration with a highly reputable agency can advance the repu-

tation of partner agencies in the media for an extended period.

•Government agencies should consider the potential “reputation spillovers”from

one agency to another when planning and executing their collaboration

strategies.

INTRODUCTION

While collaboration is complex, with an abundance of risks

and opportunities and no guarantee of a successful outcome

(e.g., Ansell & Gash, 2008;Brysonetal.,2015;Finke,2020;

Groenleer, 2009;Maor,2010; Mathieu et al., 2021;

Wilson, 1989), government agencies are increasingly

expected to engage in collaborative relationships to solve

pressing policy problems; reduce duplications, overlaps, and

inconsistent regulation; increase the efficiency or effective

use of resources between agencies; and address other ongo-

ing challenges.

1

It is anticipated that they will balance their

turf- and autonomy-protecting tendencies against the

potential benefits they can reap from collaborations that

may be externally mandated, borne out of the crisis, develop

organically, evolve over time, and, on occasion, be transac-

tional and opportunistic.

2

Consequently, government agen-

cies are expected to possess adequate financial and

organizational capabilities that will enable them to leverage

these opportunities through a collaborative model that can

significantly increase the effectiveness of all the partner

agencies involved. An interesting question arising in this con-

text concerns the quantitative value of collaboration for

bureaucratic reputation. Although this article focuses on col-

laboration among government agencies (hereafter, intera-

gency collaboration), rather than on networked, cross-sector

Received: 28 April 2022 Revised: 25 December 2022 Accepted: 30 December 2022

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13597

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any

medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

© 2023 The Authors. Public Administration Review published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society for Public Administration.

Public Admin Rev. 2023;83:639–653. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/puar 639