What do we know about nonprofit collaboration? A systematic review of the literature. Issue 2 (2nd July 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gazley, Beth; Guo, Chao
• Is Part Of: Nonprofit management & leadership. Volume 31:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: 211
• Page End: 232
• Publication Date: 2020-07-02
• Subjects: collaboration -- nonprofit -- systematic literature review; Nonprofit organizations -- Management -- Periodicals; Nonprofit organizations -- Periodicals; 658.048
• DOI: 10.1002/nml.21433
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1048-6682

Abstract

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.