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

这项研究考察了鼓励组织间伙伴关系形成的政策的效果。组织之间的伙伴关系可能会带来各种好处。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获得的其他收益。为鼓励各组织之间建立伙伴关系，各国政府可实施以下政策：力求提高对伙伴关系潜在益处的认识；促进伙伴关系的形成；消除伙伴关系形成的障碍；和/或鼓励伙伴关系。这些政策在多大程度上促成伙伴关系的形成，将取决于这些政策是否解决了阻碍伙伴关系形成的主要因素。由于组织面临的障碍和可能从伙伴关系中获得的好处不同，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，以及多个同时存在的政策如何相互作用。具体地说，这项研究考察了美国小型社区供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，鼓励水系统建立伙伴关系。这些政策的方法是支持的、基于权威的、基于信息的还是基于激励的，各不相同。该研究分析了这些国家政策的影响，以及这些影响和形成伙伴关系的关键障碍如何随小型社区供水系统的体制结构(如市政、特区、社区所有、私人)以及可能发展的伙伴关系形式(如非正式、承包、联合权力、合并)而变化。采用了一种混合方法：数据收集既包括对全美小型社区供水系统的调查，也包括对供水系统代表和州政府机构的采访。研究结果将提供关于促进不同形式的伙伴关系的干预点以及将多项并行政策联系起来的影响的见解。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。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.