Abstract
Collaboration is widely promoted in business and management research as a central mechanism for addressing complex societal challenges. Cross-sector partnerships and collaborative governance arrangements are typically understood as coordination architectures through which organisations align resources and decisions to generate impact and innovation. At the same time, regenerative futures have emerged as a paradigm oriented toward the long-term vitality of social–ecological systems, emphasising relationality, responsibility, and collective stewardship. Despite the assumed compatibility between collaboration and regeneration, many regenerative initiatives struggle to sustain participation over time. Existing research frequently documents collaboration at moments of successful coordination, yet provides limited explanation of how collaborative engagement endures under conditions of uncertainty, slow outcomes, and normative commitment.
This paper argues that dominant collaboration frameworks are conceptually misaligned with regenerative practice because they privilege structural design over lived experience. Collaboration in regenerative contexts functions not only as coordination but as an embodied and interpretive process through which participants negotiate meaning, responsibility, and shared orientation toward the future. To address this gap, the study develops a propositional research agenda that repositions collaboration as a meaning-making practice.
Methodologically, the paper conducts a thematic mapping of scholarship identified through a structured search of Scopus and Web of Science (n = 1,668), followed by quality and relevance screening resulting in a final corpus of approximately 141 empirical studies. A keyword co-occurrence analysis identifies dominant conceptual patterns, and a pilot hermeneutic analysis applies a seven-lens analytical framework to illustrate interpretive possibilities. The framework surfaces dimensions of collaboration—such as care, commitment, and relational endurance—that remain peripheral within governance-centred accounts.
The paper contributes an emerging conceptual framework for studying regenerative collaboration and outlines a hermeneutic research approach capable of addressing contemporary management challenges where sustained collective engagement is required. By shifting attention from coordination structures to shared meaning, the study advances understanding of how organisations and communities may truly thrive together in complex transformation contexts.