Abstract

Collaboration in public and nonprofit sectors enhances organizations’ access to resources, but the very process of collaboration is resource-intensive. Yet to date, the topic of how to develop and use resources for effective collaboration remains underexamined in the literature. We identify this issue as the “resource dilemma,” and examine how resources are developed and used in collaboration, drawing on the resourcing perspective. Based on a longitudinal qualitative case analysis of a collaboration of seven nonprofit organizations over five years, we identify four actions through which collaboration participants develop and use resources—framing, orienting, mobilizing, and structuring. We demonstrate how collaboration participants use these actions to develop and use resources, thus facilitating the process of collaboration. The findings suggest a new way of understanding resources in collaboration and highlight the significance of actions of collaboration participants in creating and enhancing the value of resources in collaboration.

摘要

公共和非营利部门的合作提高了组织对资源的获取，但合作过程本身就是资源密集型的。然而，迄今为止，关于如何开发和使用资源进行有效协作的话题在文献中仍未得到充分研究。我们将此问题确定为“资源困境”，并从资源配置的角度研究资源是如何在协作中开发和使用的。基于对七个非营利组织五年内合作的纵向定性案例分析，我们确定了合作参与者开发和使用资源的四种行动——框架、定位、动员和结构化。我们展示了协作参与者如何使用这些操作来开发和使用资源，从而促进协作过程。