Metagovernance as scaffolding: strategies promoting co-created learning and innovation for sustainability transitions

Co-creation among cross-sectoral actors offers a promising pathway for fostering collaborative learning and innovation in response to complex societal challenges. While prior research highlights the role of metagovernance in shaping co-creation, it has often focused on the use of discrete governance tools rather than on how these tools operate in combination. This article argues that a key task for metagovernors is to scaffold co-creation through the strategic configuration of complementary and interlocking governance factors that support three dimensions of collaborative learning and innovation: (a) reciprocal knowledge exchange and perspective transformation (input); (b) adaptive responsiveness to emerging needs and feedback (process); and (c) collective ownership and commitment to both the collaborative process and its outcomes (output). Based on a within- and cross-case analysis of four successful co-created sustainability initiatives in Denmark, the United States, Malaysia, and Serbia, we draw the distinction between (1) necessary scaffolding, which provide the baseline support structures for co-creation, and (2) contingent scaffolding, which are situationally activated in response to context-specific challenges. Our findings demonstrate that successful co-creation emerges not from the additive effects of individual governance tools, but from their configurational and mutually reinforcing interaction, through which their combined impact exceeds the sum of their parts.