Effects of State Steering Strategies on Development of 
Inter-Organizational Partnerships by Small Community Water Systems

University Of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst MA

Investigators

Abstract

This research examines the effects of policies seeking to encourage partnership formation among organizations. Partnerships between organizations may provide a variety of benefits. Through partnerships, organizations can share expertise and resources. Organizations can also take advantage of other gains made possible by working together. To encourage formation of partnerships among organizations, governments may implement policies that seek to increase awareness of the potential benefits of partnerships; that facilitate partnership formation; that remove barriers to partnership formation; and/or that incentivize partnerships. The extent to which such policies lead to partnership formation will depend on whether the policies address the primary factors inhibiting partnership formation. As organizations differ in the barriers they face and the benefits they might derive from partnerships, the effects of state policies may vary across organizations. To improve understandings of how policies influence partnership formation, this research evaluates a range of policy approaches for encouraging partnership formation as well as how multiple concurrent policies interact with one another. Specifically, the research examines the response of small community water systems in the USA to policies seeking to steer development of water system partnerships. Most states in the USA have adopted one or more policies to encourage partnership formation by water systems. Those policies vary in whether their approach is enabling, authority-based, information-based, or incentive-based. The research analyzes the effects of these state policies, as well as how those effects and the critical barriers to partnership formation vary with the institutional structures of small community water systems (e.g., municipal, special district, community-owned, private) and with the forms of partnership that may be developed (e.g., informal, contracting, joint powers, consolidation). A mixed-methods approach is utilized: data collection entails both a survey of small community water systems across the USA and interviews with water system representatives and state-primacy agencies. Results from the research will provide insights regarding the points of intervention that serve to catalyze differing forms of partnerships and the impacts of linking multiple concurrent policies. Results will also illuminate how the effects of policies vary across a diversity of organizational structures. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.