Collection

Government-Nonprofit Relations in Evolving Cross-sectoral Collaboration

Introduction

Jennifer E. Mosley & David F. Suárez
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This virtual issue of the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JPART) focuses on the evolving relationship between public and nonprofit organizations, highlighting a growing literature that conceptualizes that relationship as rooted in interdependence and collaboration. This literature has focused on the relational nature of many cross-sector actions and agreements, and is developing new insights on how to best understand, strengthen and leverage collaboration between the sectors. While twenty years ago research articles about government-nonprofit relationships largely drew on transaction cost economics and other elements of rational choice theory associated with New Public Management, today’s literature—while still seeing contracting as central to the relationship—also focuses on the many other contributions of the nonprofit sector to public management, recognizes the importance of informal cross-sector ties and relational embeddedness, and emphasizes the attainment of public value and community impact.

In selecting articles for this virtual issue we undertook a multi-stage process. First, we searched JPART archives for articles that explicitly engaged discussion about nonprofits and government. Limiting that search to articles with the term “nonprofit” in the title or the abstract yielded approximately 50 articles. Then, in order to identify relevant research that might have been overlooked with the initial search criteria, we looked more broadly for articles with “nonprofit” in the body of the text that also focused on issues relevant to cross-sectoral partnerships, such as ‘contracting’ and ‘collaboration.’

We ultimately selected nine articles that give a broad overview of the scope of this literature, its relevance to public administration, and that point the field in new and exciting directions. We took a number of criteria into account in making our selection: we wanted articles that used different methods (qualitative, quantitative, and mixed), articles that had been highly cited as well as ‘hidden gems’, and articles that reflected different policy areas and national contexts. We identified newly published work as well as field defining pieces, and selected authors that were diverse in regards to gender, race/ethnicity, and academic institution. Admittedly we were more successful in some of these areas than others, reflective of ways in which JPART, as a reflection of the field, is itself still evolving to become more inclusive and diverse.

We begin with Milward & Provan, who, in their 2000 classic Governing the Hollow State, largely lay out this agenda for the first time and whose insights clearly shaped many of the other articles in the collection. Van Slyke (2007) takes up the mantle by explicitly comparing classic principal-agent models with more collaborative principal-steward models, showing that public-nonprofit contracts often become less transactional and more relational over time. Amirkhanyan (2009) brings further nuance by showing how even performance management can be seen through a more collaborative lens and Suarez (2011) similarly uncovers how changes in the institutional environment have led to subtle shifts in nonprofit management practices to deal with contracting and performance demands. Mosley (2012) asks how these contracting relationships—and the management practices they are associated with—are affecting nonprofits’ advocacy role and Marwell & Calabrese (2015) show how financial assumptions embedded in contracting relationships has led to legitimacy issues for both public and nonprofit agencies.

Three newer papers build on this foundation but also hold promise to advance the conversation further. deWit & Bekkers (2017) use meta-analysis, a relatively underused method in public administration, as well as cross-national comparison to provide much more nuanced information on the veracity of the crowding out hypothesis than was previously available. Lee & Dodge (2018), in a new insight, differentiate between trust and distrust in collaborative relationships, a distinction that holds great promise for understanding motivation in cross-sectoral partnerships. Finally, AbouAssi, Bauer, & Johnston (2019) demonstrate how the ascriptive characteristics of managers influence collaborative relationships as well as agency characteristics.

This virtual issue makes a strong case that public administration research that centers on nonprofit organizations is valuable, gives us important insights into how public administration accomplishes its goals, and should be considered a core—not fringe—part of JPART’s scholarly mission.