Leveraging Organizational Learning in NGO-Business Collaboration

Despite the fact that there have been research reports by others such as Development agencies, the research topic on collaboration between Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector has received relatively little attention from academic researchers until quite recently. Often seen as having divergent, if not contradictory values and goals, there have been a number of changes in the global environment which have driven these institutions closer together of late. The aim in this paper is to examine ways of leveraging inter-organizational learning between NGOs and the private sector, with a focus on the use of Web 2.0 technology.Firstly, we will briefly define what is to be understood by organizational learning, business and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) and an outline of the somewhat contested concepts of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the so-called ‘Triple Bottom Line' (TBL). Secondly, we will give an overview of some of the general drivers of such collaborative arrangements, organizational learning lessons drawn from both the literature and from case examples before thirdly, focusing on examples of how Web 2.0 technology has been used by NGOs especially