ABSTRACT
Collaborative relationships between businesses and nonprofits have grown in recent years as businesses have shown a great deal of interest in working with organizations from the nonprofit sector (Berlinger 1997). In general, businesses can develop collaborative relationships with organizations in the same sector (within-sector alliances) or with organizations in different sectors (cross-sector alliances). While within sector relationships have received growing research attention (Das and Teng 1999), marketing researchers have given substantially less attention to cross-sector relationships. This is unfortunate for two reasons. First, cross-sector relationships, particularly between businesses and nonprofit organizations, are increasing in number (Berger, Cunningham, and Drumwright 1999). Second, the dynamics of cross-sector relationships differ from those of within-sector ones. For example, nonprofit organizations have different objectives, cultures, and operating styles compared to businesses (Sagawa and Segal 2000).
