Multi-Level Governance Through Public-Sector Intermediaries: Integration Versus Disintegration

This study investigates how public-sector intermediaries integrate their goals and functions across macro, meso, and micro system levels to support industry development, using the Swedish tourism sector as an empirical context. Drawing on the Three-Cycle Model of Innovation Efforts and a stakeholder–goal–function–outcome lens, the research conceptualizes public-sector intermediation as a dynamic, multi-scalar process shaped by institutional mandates, stakeholder expectations, and contextual constraints. Based on 15 semi-structured interviews, agenda-setting meetings, and document analysis across seven Swedish regions, the findings show that while intermediary goals often center on resource mobilization, networking, and development, their enacted functions are fluid and highly context-dependent. Integration across levels is frequently challenged by misaligned information structures, regulatory rigidity, fragmented digital infrastructures, and competing institutional logics, yet is enabled by adaptive mechanisms such as cross-sectoral networking, bidirectional translation work, and reflexive governance practices. The study contributes to theory by offering an extended conceptual model of goal–function integration, positioning public-sector intermediaries as boundary-spanning actors engaged in both downward policy translation and the upward articulation of situated knowledge. This refines multilevel understandings of public-sector intermediation and deepens insights into how intermediaries shape industry development within complex, evolving governance arrangements.