Grand challenges call for innovation and collaboration across sectors. Yet, many cross-sector and multi-stakeholder initiatives often fall short of achieving their intended goals, and creating the expected value. Addressing this issue requires a better understanding of how to develop and design emergent multi-stakeholder programs with actual societal value. This article leverages an in-depth case study of Sweden’s High-Capacity Transport program to develop a process model that demonstrates how three interconnected value pathways—goal gearing, participatory engagement, and program leveraging—ensured the gradual expansion of program goals and of interest among diverse participants who enhanced collective value creation and contributed to the success of this multi-stakeholder collaboration.
