Chapter 4: Assessing CSSP Performance

In this chapter, we illuminate the findings of our recent meta-review of ­important scholarship surrounding cross-sector social partnerships (CSSPs) in order to highlight some of the key drivers of social innovation performance in cross-sector collaboration performance. To do so, we will be summarizing some of the key findings of previous studies as well as conducting secondary research to identify the common themes of CSSP performance discussed in some of the top academic journals. Ultimately, the goal of our secondary research was to isolate and synthesize a list of CSSP performance drivers based on a meta-review of the extant literature. Establishing a comprehensive list of performance drivers should help guide practitioners looking to lead CSSPs and provide scholars with direction to empirically test performance in different collaborative contexts, ultimately identifying those that are most important to achieving CSSP goals. The result of our analysis is a performance framework that identifies 10 drivers of performance within 3 levels of impact: outputs, outcomes, and impact. To our knowledge, this is the first book of its kind that attempts to gather and synthesize the considerable literature on cross-sector collaboration performance in an effort to illuminate current research and practice.