Community-based initiatives (CBIs) are thriving in Western countries. In CBIs, citizens take a leading role in providing public services and goods. CBIs have been acclaimed for their innovativeness, problem-solving capacity, and legitimacy. However, we lack large N studies on performance of CBIs and its antecedents. This article develops and tests a model that identifies relationships between performance and four antecedents by using survey data on CBIs collected in the Netherlands (N = 671). Using structural equation modelling, positive direct and indirect relationships between transformational leadership, boundary spanning leadership, organizational capacity, social capital ties, government support, and performance are found.
There are high political and policy expectations of local and voluntary initiatives of citizens collaborating to provide public services themselves. Despite rising attention, existing research lacks systematic knowledge on the actual outcomes of citizen initiatives and on stimulating or hampering factors. Therefore, we present a systematic literature review using the PRISMA approach on citizen initiatives and related terms. The studies show citizens being able to achieve outcomes touching upon a broad range of public values. Furthermore, the review presents contributing factors, like government support and boundary spanning leadership. Yet, the field of citizen initiatives in the social sciences can benefit from more methodological and analytical rigor. We therefore conclude with a conceptual framework for community self-management that identifies relationships between outcomes and relevant factors and discuss future research directions.
Increasingly, Western local governments are dealing with community-based initiatives (CBIs) of citizens providing public services. Municipalities possess critical resources CBIs generally lack, including subsidies, buildings, and exposure. There is still little knowledge on CBIs' factors for government support. Therefore, this study adopts an organizational perspective distinguishing among institutionalization (intraorganizational, e.g., organizational size and
A city is a place where many initiatives, people, and social and urban challenges meet. This article brings together the cumulative knowledge of eight researchers who have been studying community-based initiatives (CBIs) via case studies in various countries. In some countries, citizens were not satisfied with governmentprovided services, or services were lacking. Governments in other countries faced budget cuts to their public services, which led to a strong call for citizens to take matters into their own hands. There is a lack of research investigating the performance of CBIs and explaining their success and failure. The authors systematically analyze their recent case studies through qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) and try to explain under which conditions CBIs lead to high performance. One of the key findings of this analysis is that proximate conditions related to the CBIs-strong organizational capacity, democratic structure, and leadership-are important for high performance. However, these conditions are not sufficient on their own. Community-based initiatives need a conductive environment to achieve high performance; in our cases, government support and a heterogeneous community or a supportive government attitude was key.
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