The impact of central government steering and local network dynamics on the performance of mandated service delivery networks: the case of the Primary Health Care networks in Flanders

This paper focuses on the impact of central U+2013 local relations on the performance of local service delivery networks set up by central government. Analyzing network literature leaves us with some questions about the impact of coordination strategies of central government as a possible determinant of network-level effectiveness for this type of network and the possible interaction between central government coordination (as part of the network context) and internal network dynamics and the combined effects hereof on the effectiveness of mandated service delivery networks in particular. Our analysis shows that both levels are important to explain the outcomes of the Primary Health Care networks in Flanders. Our study also leads to some important observations about the meaning of U+2018central government coordinationU+2019 in this context.

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