The drivers of successful collaborations between Business and Civil Society Organisations

Abstract

Business-civil society organisation (CSO) collaborations have gained increasing traction as a potential solution for social problems we face today. Scholars have shown that through engaging in collaborations, complementing and combining each other's resources, firms and CSOs are able to address complex societal issues, which cannot easily be dealt with by a single sector. However, as business and CSOs have different institutional logics, many challenges exist for firm-CSO collaborations to be successful. Despite numerous studies have been undertaken to examine the antecedents to successful firm-CSO collaborations from the collaborating firms' perspective, the major limitation that hinders our understanding on the issue is lack of large-scale empirical studies. In seeking to contribute to this research gap, this study addresses the questions: RQ1. To what extent do the drivers of a firm's participation in a business-CSO collaboration, in particular stakeholder pressure and access to CSO's resources, influence the collaboration outcome? RQ2. To what extent does a firm's collaborative behaviour in a business-CSO collaboration, in particular the propensity of the firm to develop inter-organisational connectivity, to share resources and to implement inter-organisational trust, influence the collaboration outcome? To address these questions, this research carries out systematic literature review on CSO-firm collaboration studies and develops a conceptual framework. In order to examine this framework, this research conducted a pilot study involving interviews with 12 South Korean CSR managers. Based on these interviews, the testable research model was developed and a total of 224 questionnaires were returned. The usable response rate is equivalent to a 43% response rate (215/500). This research applied PLS-SEM using SmartPLS 3 software to examine the hypothesised relationship. Results show that firms experiencing pressures from stakeholders and possessing a desire to access a CSO's resources demonstrate a higher propensity to build inter-organizational connectivity and share resources. Additionally, firms wanting to access a CSO's resources demonstrate a higher propensity to build inter-organizational trust through collaborative efforts. These findings imply that managers need to adhere to these behaviours in order to collaborate successfully with CSO.

Date of Award	14 Oct 2020
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Stefania Marino (Main Supervisor), Rudolf R. Sinkovics (Co Supervisor) & Noemi Sinkovics (Co Supervisor)