Intersector Reads 2018

blogimage_booksIn the New Year, we’re reflecting on a great year of intersector reads that examine business, government, and non-profit collaboration as an approach to remedying some of the most complex public challenges we face today. These books are targeted toward both researchers and practitioners interested in cross-sector collaboration — and they tackle a range of topics from social value investing to the economics of public-private partnerships. Here’s our list, along with publishers’ summaries, of the most valuable books on cross-sector collaboration recently published.


Knowledge, Learning and Innovation: Research Insights on Cross-Sector Collaborations, edited by Vanessa Ratten, Vitor Braga, and Carla Susana Marques (Springer International Publishing)

“This book places knowledge, learning and innovation at the heart of cross-sector collaborations. Collaboration for innovation is a topic that has attracted widespread interest from academics, business strategists and government officials. To date the collaborations have focused on the performance management process and more specifically on how to encourage collaboration. However, businesses across the world are realizing that for cross-sector collaboration to be successful, it is necessary for firms to share knowledge and innovation through a process of learning. The book contributes to this by providing fresh insights into ways to stimulate cross-sector collaboration. It presents diverse methods and approaches to unify the dimensions of knowledge, learning and innovation and discusses how collaboration can be created, sustained, and expanded.


The Economics of Public-Private Partnerships: Theoretical and Empirical Developments, Stéphane Saussier and Julie de Brux (Springer International Publishing)

This book investigates the economic decisions behind the implementation of public-private partnerships (PPPs). The first part of the book discusses different forms of public procurement contracts, in particular in France and the UK, and provides an economic analysis of the potential advantages and pitfalls of public-private partnerships. This exploration of PPPs’ efficiency also includes an examination of the financing conditions of public procurements, as well as regulatory requirements. By reviewing empirical studies on PPPs, the second part of the book compares their advantages over purely public solutions and offers practical guidance on their implementation. Practitioners will also learn best practices on how to involve stakeholders in calls for bids.”


The New Localism: How Cities Can Thrive in the Age of Populism, Bruce Katz and Jeremy Nowak (Brookings Institution Press)

In their new book, The New Localism, urban experts Bruce Katz and Jeremy Nowak reveal where the real power to create change lies and how it can be used to address our most serious social, economic, and environmental challenges.

Power is shifting in the world: downward from national governments and states to cities and metropolitan communities; horizontally from the public sector to networks of public, private and civic actors; and globally along circuits of capital, trade, and innovation.

This new locus of power — this new localism — is emerging by necessity to solve the grand challenges characteristic of modern societies: economic competitiveness, social inclusion and opportunity; a renewed public life; the challenge of diversity; and the imperative of environmental sustainability. Where rising populism on the right and the left exploits the grievances of those left behind in the global economy, new localism has developed as a mechanism to address them head on.”


Social Value Investing: A Management Framework for Effective Partnerships, Howard W. Buffett and William B. Eimicke (Columbia University Press)

Social Value Investing presents a new way to approach some of society’s most difficult and intractable challenges. Although many of our world’s problems may seem too great and too complex to solve — inequality, climate change, affordable housing, corruption, healthcare, food insecurity — solutions to these challenges do exist, and will be found through new partnerships bringing together leaders from the public, private, and philanthropic sectors.

In their new book, Howard W. Buffett and William B. Eimicke present a five-point management framework for developing and measuring the success of such partnerships. Inspired by value investing — one of history’s most successful investment paradigms — this framework provides tools to maximize collaborative efficiency and positive social impact, so that major public programs can deliver innovative, inclusive, and long-lasting solutions. It also offers practical insights for any private sector CEO, public sector administrator, or nonprofit manager hoping to build successful cross-sector collaborations.

Social Value Investing tells the compelling stories of cross-sector partnerships from around the world — Central Park and the High Line in New York City, community-led economic development in Afghanistan, and improved public services in cities across Brazil. Drawing on lessons and observations from a broad selections of collaborations, this book combines real life stories with detailed analysis, resulting in a blueprint for effective, sustainable partnerships that serve the public interest. Readers also gain access to original, academic case material and professionally produced video documentaries for every major partnerships profiled — bringing to life the people and stories in a way that few other business or management books have done.”


Payment by Results and Social Impact Bonds: Outcome-based Payment Systems in the UK and US, Kevin Albertson, Chris Fox, Chris O’Leary, and Gary Painter (Policy Press)

“As public services budgets are cut, the ‘Payment by Results’ (or Pay for Success) model has become a popular choice in public sector commissioning. Social Impact Bonds are a variant of Payment by Results also promoted by proponents of social (or impact) investing. But how effective are these approaches?

This short book asks whether the Payment by Results model is an efficient way to unlock new capital investment, help new providers to enter the ‘market’ and foster innovation, or whether the extension of ‘neoliberal’ thinking, complexity and the effects of managerialism undermine the effective delivery of social outcomes.

Synthesising lessons from the UK and US for the first time, the book draws on published work in both countries together with insights from the authors’ own research and consultancy experience to offer a balanced and bipartisan overview of a field where the evidence has been weak and there are strong ideological agendas in play.”