Partnership and Performance of Community-Based Organizations: A Social Network Study of Taiwan

ABSTRACT

Community-based organizations (CBOs) generally face challenges of meeting clients’ complex needs with limited resources. Partnership development can be a strategy for the CBOs to expand capacity and improve performance. However, relevant evidence is scant and tends to lack a theoretical base. This study examines the relation between networking and performance of a CBO from the perspective of social network analysis. The sample consists of 15 CBOs relying on volunteers to provide primary care services for older adults in a suburban area of Taiwan. Data analyzed include an expert evaluation record, a sociomatrix data set denoting the CBOs’ relationships, and a focus group of the social workers supporting the CBOs’ services. The breadth, brokerage, and embeddedness of networking are measured by centrality indicators and are hypothesized as being beneficial for service performance in terms of effectiveness and innovation. The study reveals that brokerage and embeddedness of networking are positively associated with effectiveness. A CBO may enhance its performance by bridging less connected organizations that need the relationship or by partnering with other organizations that bring in information from many others, but a wide social network is not necessarily helpful. Future studies can strengthen the findings by employing large samples and advanced statistical methods.