Collaboration of NGOs and business in Poland

Abstract

Purpose

The paper is devoted to cross‐sector collaborative bonds appearing in Poland in the last years. The general purpose of the paper is to draw a picture of existing collaboration between NGOs and business organizations in Poland. Particularly, its purpose is to research the conditions and characteristics in which Polish profit and non‐profit organizations establish the collaborative bonds.

Design/methodology/approach

First, the paper introduces short description of social economy in Poland, presents corporate social responsibility as a possible framework for cross‐sector collaboration and shortly introduces different theoretical frameworks of inter‐organisational collaboration. It is of descriptive type and is only the first step to explore more deeply (in an analytical way) the area of collaboration. The reason is that this paper is the first of its kind in Poland.

Findings

The paper is conducted in 2008. The questionnaire available online is used. The invitation to participate in the research is sent directly by e‐mail to 830 organizations from the whole country (the level of feedback: 21.2 per cent). Thanks to the research, it is possible to draw a broad picture of NGOs – business cross‐sector collaboration.

Research limitations/implications

The survey results allow an understanding of the nature of collaboration between two sectors may be helpful to other scientific researchers and to leaders of business and non‐governmental organizations to establish long‐lasting mutually beneficial relationships. This paper itself is the first step to trace and understand processes that arise in the area of collaboration between profit and non‐profit organizations in Poland.

Originality/value

This paper is the first of its kind in Poland and has to be descriptive and exploratory to allow future analysis and conceptualizations. Though there are many exhaustive research on the third sector in Poland, there is a lack of research where the collaboration with business partners is explored.

Citation

Reichel, J. and Rudnicka, A. (2009), "Collaboration of NGOs and business in Poland", Social Enterprise Journal, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 126-140. https://doi.org/10.1108/17508610910981716