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.

中文翻译：

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我们对非营利合作了解多少？对文献的系统回顾

这份系统的文献综述报告了1972年至2015年之间发布的有关部门内部和跨部门非营利性合作的以往经验研究的内容（n= 657）。对这些文章的分析揭示了四个主要主题：多样化但“孤立”的数据；研究范围不平衡；“四大”组织理论的主导地位；并且研究复杂性的改善有限。它还进一步确定了五个具体的研究差距：对非营利合作形式和强度的关注不足；在理论推理和经验证据上的分歧和矛盾；缺乏对合作主持人和/或调解人的关注；缺乏对合作失败的理解；并且缺乏比较研究。这些发现通过观察使用更广泛的文献和方法来建立该领域知识的价值，有助于为协作研究和实践提供信息。