What do we know about nonprofit collaboration? A systematic review of the literature

Abstract

This systematic literature review reports on the content of past empirical studies of nonprofit collaboration within and across the sectors, published between 1972 and 2015 (n = 657). An analysis of these articles reveals four major themes: diverse but "siloed" data; imbalance in research coverage; the dominance of "big four" organization theories; and limited improvement in research sophistication. It further identifies five specific research gaps: the insufficient attention to the forms and intensity of nonprofit collaboration; the divergences and contradictions in theoretical reasoning and empirical evidence; the lack of attention to the moderators and/ or mediators of collaboration; the lack of understanding of collaborative failure; and the lack of comparative studies. These findings help to inform collaboration research and practice by observing the value in using a broader scope of literature and methods to build knowledge in this area.

Do U.S. Faith-Based Social Service Organizations Resist Collaboration? Examining the Role of Religiosity and Operational Capacity in Interorganizational Partnerships

“…Finally, this study indicates the factors driving organizations’ collaboration with partners in different sectors are distinct, suggesting the differential motivations and underlying mechanisms behind organizations’ within- and cross-sector collaboration. These findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the antecedents to interorganizational collaboration in different sectors (e.g., Gazley & Guo, 2020). Future research should distinguish the factors that influence the magnitude of interorganizational collaboration versus the factors that influence the presence/absence of interorganizational collaboration in each sector.…”

Interorganizational network portfolios of nonprofit organizations: Implications for collaboration management

“…Finally, this research draws attention to the ways that organizational revenue and social mission relate to network strategy, contributing to our knowledge of the antecedents to nonprofit collaboration (Gazley & Guo, 2020). As such, it marks the introductory step to understanding what factors influence nonprofit managers' efforts to maintain network portfolios.…”

“…Prior research has suggested categories of interorganizational relationships based on the degree of formality (Guo & Acar, 2005), integration (Austin & Seitanidi, 2012; Keast, Brown, & Mandell, 2007), activity type (Powell et al, 1996; Snavely & Tracy, 2000), and network goals (Popp et al, 2014). However, we know little about the interaction occurring in different types of interorganizational relationships (Gazley & Guo, 2020). Since network scholarship largely fails to discriminate between different types of interorganizational relationships (see Provan et al, 2007), we use partnership integration to characterize the type of interaction and degree of integration implied in different forms of partnerships.…”

Partners, Not Providers: A Collaboration Typology for Congregations and Community

“…This is reminiscent of resource dependency theory (Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978), which suggests that organizations exist within a shared, turbulent environment and depend on one another for resources. This framework is frequently applied to studies of nonprofit collaboration (Gazley & Guo, 2020), and prior research has indicated that, despite an assumption that smaller organizations may be more in need of resources and thus more likely to partner, larger organizations with more resources are more likely to engage in formal partnerships (Guo & Acar, 2005). Studies of congregations have indicated similar findings with respect to resources and environment; congregations more likely to provide social services are typically larger, have larger budgets, and are located in poorer neighborhoods with greater needs (Chaves & Tsitsos, 2001).…”