Pathways to Lasting Cross-Sector Social Collaboration: A Configurational Study

Christiana Weber,Hannes Leonardy,Helen Haugh,Markus Göbel

doi:10.1007/s10551-020-04714-y

Abstract

AbstractCross-sector social collaborations are increasingly recognised as valuable inter-organizational arrangements that seek to combine the commercial capabilities of private sector companies with the deep knowledge of social and environmental issues enrooted in social sector organizations. In this paper we empirically examine the configurations of conditions that lead to lasting cross-sector social collaboration. Situating our enquiry in Schütz’s theory of life-worlds and the reciprocity literature, we employ fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to analyse data gathered from 60 partners in 30 cross-sector social collaborations. We find two distinct types of configurational pathways leading to lasting cross-sector social collaboration which we labelreciprocal economic exchangebased on direct reciprocity, andreciprocal social exchangebased on generalised reciprocity. The pathways vary in terms of the delivery of expected and unexpected resources and benefits. We introduce the concept ofdouble relationalityto explain the interdependence of structure and action in lasting cross sector social collaboration.

Highlights

Cross-sector social collaborations bring together organizations from sectors with divergent logics and are central to understanding how organizations guided by different backgrounds, ethical values and beliefs can work together (Berger et al 2004; Selsky and Parker 2005, 2010; Di Domenico et al 2009; Austin and Seitanidi 2012a, b; Clarke and Crane 2018; van Tulder and Keen 2018)
In this way we identify configurations of our causal conditions, rather than the conditions in isolation, for lasting cross-sector social collaborations
To illustrate the unexpected resources pathway, we present the collaboration between the corporation Fresh Food Technology (FFT) and the social enterprises (SEs) Shri Jagdamba Samiti (SJS) from solution term 3 (Table 5)

Summary

Introduction

Cross-sector social collaborations bring together organizations from sectors with divergent logics and are central to understanding how organizations guided by different backgrounds, ethical values and beliefs can work together (Berger et al 2004; Selsky and Parker 2005, 2010; Di Domenico et al 2009; Austin and Seitanidi 2012a, b; Clarke and Crane 2018; van Tulder and Keen 2018). Di Domenico et al (2009) explicitly anticipate the tensions associated with competing practices and priorities intrinsic to partners’ differing goals, governance and accountability structures and processes and theorize that a lasting cross-sector social collaboration rests on congruence between the priorities, practices and processes of both partners. We investigate the different pathways to lasting cross-sector social collaborations by employing Schütz’s (1967) lifeworld theory. Drawing on Schütz’s theorization of life-world congruence, we review the extant collaboration literature and derive five conditions that influence a lasting cross-sector social collaboration, namely, congruence of goals, governance structures, administrative processes, accountability processes and exchange modalities. We examine the extent to which different configurations of these conditions lead to lasting cross-sector social collaborations. The Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) method isolates the effects of different combinations of conditions on an outcome measure and recognizes equifinality—that there might be several pathways to reach the same outcome

Methods

Results

Conclusion