Scientific goals
GOBAREG’s overall aim is to develop, analyse and validate an interdisciplinary framework on the conditions and context under which goal-based regulation (GBR) can be included, designed and implemented legitimately and achieve its expected outcomes in a hybrid multi-actor regulatory regime.
In particular, GOBAREG will study the role of rule design, stakeholder involvement and regulatory supervision as conditions for legitimate GBR, as well as investigate contextual factors (sector features, regulatee features and trust dynamics) and the expected GBR outcomes. In doing so, GOBAREG will address several gaps in existing research and add novel perspectives, incl. a rationale of legitimacy, the focus on hybrid regulation, a multi-actor perspective, behavioural implications, trade-offs between expected GBR outcomes, and the interconnected conditions and context for legitimate GBR.
The specific scientific objectives (SO) are:
- (SO1) to analyse the actual evolution towards GBR and describe the status of the conditions, context factors and expected outcomes of GBR within a hybrid multi-actor regime,
- (SO2) to assess the impact of GBR on the behaviour of individual actors, and
- (SO3) to study the effect of the (combined set of) conditions for legitimate GBR and context factors on the expected outcomes in a real-life hybrid multi-actor regulatory regime.
Drawing upon state-of-the-art research, but also in consultation with the project’s societal users, GOBAREG builds and tests theories on the role of (a) context factors, incl. sector and regulatee features and trust dynamics (interdisciplinary); (b) rule design, incl. clarity, stringency and discretion or rules (law); (c) stakeholder involvement, incl. mode, timing and diversity of stakeholders (political science); and (d) regulatory supervision, incl. enforcement style, regulatory capacity and cooperation (public administration) in (e) achieving the expected GBR outcomes, incl. better compliance and goal attainment, increased innovation, lower regulatory burdens, and more sector and societal support (law & economics). While each component has its own (inter)disciplinary ground and actor focus, they all contribute to realising the three SOs.
The project’s interdisciplinary setup translates into a multi-method approach, consisting of a mapping [= actual GBR], behavioural experiments [= hypothetical GBR] and large-scale field experiments [= real-life tested GBR] that will follow a logic of triangulation. The use of multiple experiments is unique in the regulatory governance literature but highly apt for studying a multi-faceted issue as GBR. We adopt a comparative case study design by examining two cases of social regulation (environmental and welfare sector in Flanders).
Utilisation goals and potential impact
The GOBAREG project reflects policy concerns from the OECD, the European Commission, and Belgium's national, regional and local authorities. The utilisation objective (UO) of the project is to support and innovate the design and implementation of GBR by
- (UO1) developing and validating an evidence-based toolkit for legitimate GBR in a hybrid context available to all regulatory regime actors;
- (UO2) fostering shared knowledge creation between researchers and societal users and inspiring innovations in the planning, development and implementation of different regulatory approaches in Flanders and beyond; and
- (UO3) improving the knowledge, insight and capacity of actors within the regulatory regime with regards to legitimate GBR in a hybrid multi-actor context.
The project’s utilisation strategy follows a multi-actor, multisector and multi-method approach. The purpose is to achieve regulatory innovation in close interaction with societal users. The multi-actor perspective aspires a real symbiosis between science and practice. The multi-sector approach ensures variety in types of contexts and, hence, improves the translation and upscaling potential of the project. The research methods applied in the project are, at the same time, considered to be valuable valorisation instruments. Through an approach of co-creation, GOBAREG will move into a genuinely co-designed, co-produced and co-disseminated study in which both researchers and societal users deliver insightful contributions to the project and create value together. Co-creation is facilitated through the advisory committee and five actor-focused working groups.
GOBAREG results will be translated and upscaled through several valorisation instruments: (a) communication strategy; (b) GBR knowledge platform; (c) evidence-based GBR toolkit; (d) education and training; (e) policy briefs; and (f) international colloquium and practitioner conference.