Enhancing the Impact of Cross-Sector Partnerships: Four Impact Loops for Channeling Partnership Studies

Rob van Tulder, Stephen Brammer, May Seitanidi, Andrew Crane

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

112 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper addresses the topic of this special symposium issue: how to enhance the impact of cross-sector partnerships. The paper takes stock of two related discussions: the discourse in cross-sector partnership research on how to assess impact and the discourse in impact assessment research on how to deal with more complex organizations and projects. We argue that there is growing need and recognition for cross-fertilization between the two areas. Cross-sector partnerships are reaching a paradigmatic status in society, but both research and practice need more thorough evidence of their impacts and of the conditions under which these impacts can be enhanced. This paper develops a framework that should enable a constructive interchange between the two research areas, while also framing existing research into more precise categories that can lead to knowledge accumulation. We address the preconditions for such a framework and discuss how the constituent parts of this framework interact. We distinguish four different pathways or impact loops that refer to four distinct orders of impact. The paper concludes by applying these insights to the four papers included in this special issue.
Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Business Ethics
Early online date3 Dec 2015
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 3 Dec 2015

Keywords

  • Impact
  • Monitoring and evaluation
  • Cross-sector partnerships
  • Effectiveness

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