| dc.description.abstract | Collective Impact (CI) emerged in recent years as a promising approach to address complex, community-level health and social issues. CI involves the commitment of multi-sector organizations to address a given issue using a structured approach. The CI framework includes five major elements: 1) common agenda, 2) shared measurement system, 3) mutually reinforcing activities, 4) continuous communication, and 5) backbone organization. Limited research exists on the application of the CI framework, including how the framework relates to CI collaboration and efforts towards community impact. To begin to address this gap, this study employs an two-timepoint interorganizational network (ION) analysis of an infant safe sleep CI initiative in the Hampton Roads Region of Virginia, SleepTight Hampton Roads (N=23). We also explore organizational productivity of the CI members by employing a quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) correlation. ION findings indicate that while the five CI framework elements exist in practice, variations may occur. In addition, we find that the roles of organizations in relation to centrality change over time, as well as how changes can occur in relation to overall connectedness of in-network and out-network actors, particularly in collaboration dimensions such as technical assistance, jointly planning activities, and sharing tangible resources. Finally, we uncover that, in this CI case, centrality is not correlated with organizational productivity towards the CI network’s mission, although overall productivity may be strong. This research provides insight on CI in practice and allows for future research to continue to explore build empirical knowledge to understand CI theoretical framework application. | en |
