Understanding the role of the broker in business non-profit collaboration

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the contribution of brokers to business non-profit collaborations, in the context of employee volunteering. It investigates the roles brokers play and ways they contribute to value creation within social alliances.

Design/methodology/approach

This research focusses on a case study of a UK employee volunteering broker programme run by a local volunteer centre. A combined qualitative methodology involved document analysis and interviews, with brokers and business, community and government partners involved in employee volunteering collaborations.

Findings

Brokers play three key roles in business non-profit collaboration as connectors, facilitators/co-designers and learning catalysts. These roles help stimulate manifestations of associational value, transferred resource value, interaction value and synergistic value.

Research limitations/implications

Results indicate brokers play an important part in nurturing conditions underpinning innovation and value co-creation, key characteristics of transformational forms of business non-profit collaboration. This study was based on a single case study. Future research could explore broker contributions within a variety of business non-profit settings.

Practical implications

For managers implementing business non-profit collaborations, this paper provides a framework depicting key broker roles and ways brokers enable collaborative value that may be useful when assessing whether to use the services of a broker.

Originality/value

This paper enriches the understanding of business non-profit collaboration and the role of individual actors in affecting value creation, an under-researched area in the social alliance literature. It provides a framework for assessing broker contributions in business non-profit collaborations.

Citation

Lee, L. (2015), "Understanding the role of the broker in business non-profit collaboration", Social Responsibility Journal, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 201-220. https://doi.org/10.1108/SRJ-05-2013-0050