Those conducting research in the area of partnerships and collaboration may be interested in a new study produced by the Network for Business Sustainability (NBS; http://nbs.net/). The authors, Dr. Barbara Gray and Ms. Jenna Stites of The Pennsylvania State University, systematically reviewed the existing literature on what best practices enable firms to collaborate with other organizations to advance sustainable business. Drawing on more than 275 studies, they developed a model of four factors affecting partnership outcomes. These factors are drivers, motivations, partner characteristics and process issues.
Their report identifies:
Different types of partnerships and their associated goals
What organizations can achieve through partnerships
How to improve partnerships through partner selection and process management
Almost 150 different partnership examples
The systematic review is available at http://nbs.net/knowledge/partnerships/systematic-review/. An executive report for managers - also appropriate for use by students - is available at http://nbs.net/knowledge/partnerships/executive-report/.
Dr. Jonathan Doh helped to guide this research, along with managers from the NBS Leadership Council.
We hope that you will find these materials useful - and we welcome your feedback.
Other NBS resources
NBS systematically reviews prior research on the topics most important to a panel of sustainability officers within leading companies. These are excellent starting places if you are initiating research projects in an area or looking for readings for your classes. Full reviews are available at http://nbs.net/publications/systematic-reviews/; executive reports are available at http://nbs.net/publications/executive-reports/.
NBS presents insights from thought leaders in the sustainability space, including John Sterman, Gail Whiteman and Peter Senge, at http://nbs.net/category/thought-leaders/. We also post links to recently published journal articles in corporate social responsibility and sustainability (http://nbs.net/research/).
Please subscribe to NBS (http://nbs.net/community/subscribe/) to receive our newsletter and help bridge research and practice in sustainability.
Maya Fischhoff
Knowledge Manager | Network for Business Sustainability
412-965-1756
http://www.nbs.net
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