This paper examines how innovations are reshaped collaboratively as they are implemented and adopted with the involvement of different local actors who seek to fit the innovation to their specific needs and interests. Drawing on an in-depth field study of the implementation of an education innovation, we contribute to understanding the role of collaborations in the implementation process. We identify distinct mechanisms that facilitate collaborations among local actors during implementation in a setting where local actors resist the innovation that threatens their existing routines and do not have any incentives to participate in the implementation process. Developing a model of collaborative implementation, we theorize the process through which innovations are implemented in the local pockets of the implementation setting and how local actors progressively adopt the innovation and eventually contemplate their existing practices to accommodate better the innovation they once resisted. These observations allow us to contribute to extant theory by explaining the micro-dynamics of collaborative implementation over time.
