The Why and How of Firm-NGO Collaborations Working Papers in Information Systems and Business Administration

Abstract This paper studies the motivation, success factors and threats of collaborations between NGOs and firms. It builds up on existing literature on collaborations between firms and examines whether collaboration between NGOs and privateowned companies are different from collaborations between firms. Although there are many similar aspects, some differences can be made up. First, firms collaborate with NGOs mainly to get access to the reputation and legitimacy of an NGO. In contrast, NGOs enter a collaboration with a corporate partner to advance its managerial skills and receive financial resources. Second, firms and NGOs measure the performance and success of a firm-NGO relationship differently. While firms primarily seek financial success, NGOs pursue more ideological goals and offer intangible assets such as reputation and authenticity that are hard to quantify. Third, an NGO suffers stronger if a partner does not behave in a way that fits to the partnership and damages the reputation and legitimacy of the NGO. This is problematic for NGOs, as reputation and legitimacy are their key resources.