Explaining the longitudinal dynamics of international collaboration in disaster recovery: Friends, partners, or foes?

Abstract Despite a concerted scholarly focus on collaborative management, there is scant research on the evolution of collaboration in international assistance networks. Questions remain on what explains the evolution of collaborative relationships in international assistance collaborative networks, and on the importance of trust, faith‐based status, and geographical homophily in predicting the development of international assistance collaborative networks over time. Similarly, how do organizations from different sectors collaborate over time in international assistance collaborative networks? To address these questions, we analyze the nature and evolution of collaboration between international and local non‐governmental organizations (NGOs), faith‐based organizations (FBOs), and other organizations providing disaster recovery assistance before and after the 2010 Haiti earthquake in three time periods: before 2010, 2010–2012, and 2012–2015. Employing descriptive and inferential network methods, we find that knowledge‐based trust, geographical homophily, and the faith‐based status of organizations predict the development of collaborative relations in different periods of time.