Does Service Category Matter for Cross-Sectoral Collaboration?

Scholarly literature on cross-sectoral collaboration is rich, but incomplete as most studies tend to overlook nuances across different service categories. Though many studies confirm that collaboration may vary by specific service type, very few ask how and why? This study contributes to this area of inquiry by exploring these questions in the context of nonprofit-local government collaboration in a developing country in which nonprofit organizations play a major role in public service delivery, expanding analysis beyond the traditional western settings that dominate current scholarship. Analyzing a unique dataset of survey responses from 223 Lebanese nonprofit managers, we find that local-nonprofit collaboration likelihood does indeed vary by the nonprofit's service focus. This is consistent with existing scholarship. Further, we extend the analysis to examine whether and how a set of underlying features that shape collaboration vary by service category. Patterns emerge to explain the association between the service category and perceptions of weak institutional features in the collaboration landscape. We offer explanations for these findings, drawing on specific characteristics of selected services and the mechanisms through which they could influence collaboration and its dynamics.

Automated summary

Scholarly literature has extensively studied cross-sectoral collaboration, but often overlooks differences among different service categories. This study fills this gap by exploring nonprofit-local government collaboration in a developing country, going beyond the traditional Western settings. Using a unique dataset from Lebanese nonprofit managers, the study finds that collaboration likelihood varies by service focus, and identifies patterns explaining the association between service category and perceived weak institutional features in collaboration.