Beyond the Comfort Zone? County Government Collaboration with Private-Sector Organizations to Deliver Services

ABSTRACT

Despite burgeoning research on collaboration, the preference and choice of public managers to partner with other public-sector institutions versus private-sector organizations has received comparatively little attention. This study proposes that public managers are inclined to partner with other government agencies, i.e., within their “comfort zone,” and presents a model to explain when they may go beyond the comfort zone to collaborate with private establishments. Using an embedded case study design, this study examines how the professional background of the manager, characteristics of the government organization, and the “market” of potential partners influence the reported incidence of collaboration with nongovernmental actors.

KEYWORDS:

• Cross-sector collaboration
• local government
• service delivery

Notes

1. QCEW only disaggregates establishment data (i.e., separate for-profit establishments from nonprofit establishments) in their state level files. The authors contacted BLS data administrators to obtain county-level establishment data by sector, but the request was denied.

2. “An establishment is commonly understood as a single economic unit, such as a farm, a mine, a factory, or a store, that produces goods or services. Establishments are typically at one physical location and engaged in one, or predominantly one, type of economic activity for which a single industrial classification may be applied. A firm, or a company, is a business and may consist of one or more establishments, where each establishment may participate in different predominant economic activity” (Bureau of Labor Statistics, n.d.).