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

本研究考察旨在鼓励组织间建立伙伴关系的政策的效果。组织之间的伙伴关系可以提供各种各样的好处。通过伙伴关系，组织可以共享专业知识和资源。组织还可以利用通过合作而可能获得的其他收益。为了鼓励各组织之间建立伙伴关系，各国政府可执行旨在提高对伙伴关系潜在利益的认识的政策；促进合伙关系的形成；这消除了建立伙伴关系的障碍；或者激励合作关系。这些政策在多大程度上导致合伙关系的形成将取决于这些政策是否解决了阻碍合伙关系形成的主要因素。由于各组织面临的障碍不同，它们可能从伙伴关系中获得的利益也不同，因此国家政策的影响可能因组织而异。为了提高对政策如何影响伙伴关系形成的理解，本研究评估了一系列鼓励伙伴关系形成的政策方法，以及多个并行政策如何相互作用。具体而言，该研究考察了美国小型社区水系统对寻求引导水系统伙伴关系发展的政策的反应。美国大多数州都采取了一项或多项政策来鼓励水系统结成伙伴关系。这些政策的不同之处在于它们的方法是基于授权、基于权威、基于信息还是基于激励。该研究分析了这些国家政策的影响，以及这些影响和伙伴关系形成的关键障碍如何随着小型社区水系统的制度结构（例如，市政、特区、社区所有、私人）和可能发展的伙伴关系形式（例如，非正式、合同、联合权力、合并）而变化。采用混合方法：数据收集需要对美国各地的小型社区水系统进行调查，并与水系统代表和州主要机构进行访谈。研究结果将提供有关干预点的见解，这些干预点有助于促进不同形式的伙伴关系以及将多个并行政策联系起来的影响。结果还将阐明政策的影响在不同的组织结构中是如何变化的。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.