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This research elaborated and empirically tested the individual action component of the collective action model as applied to individual contributions to organizational information commons. The model extended prior theory and research by making six elaborations on the classic collective action model based on unique characteristics of information goods compared to material collective goods. The structural equation model was tested via LISREL analyses of data provided by 781 respondents in three high-tech firms who had access to corporate intranets as shared information goods. The results were highly similar across organizations and indicated that (a) level of production, information retrieval, and cost predicted the perceived value of information, (b) information value and cost predicted gain, and (c) information retrieval and gain predicted the level of individual contributions to the commons.

This article presents a public goods-based theory that describes the process of producing multifirm, alliance-based, interorganizational communication and information public goods. These goods offer participants in alliances collective benefits that are (a) nonexcludable, in that they are available to all alliance partners whether or not they have contributed, and (b) jointly supplied, in that partners' uses of the good are noncompeting. Two generic types of goods produced are connectivity, the ability of partners to directly communicate with each other through the information and communication system, and communality, the availability of a commonly accessible pool of information to alliance partners. Four types of alliances that can produce these goods are identified: (a) precompetitive, (b) competitive, (c) joint value creation, and (d) value chain. The article examines a variety of factors that influence the production of alliance-based connective and communal goods. Twenty-three integrated propositions are presented. The article concludes with an example of the application of the theoretical model to research on connectivity and communality provided through an alliance-based interorganizational communication and information system linking more than 50 alliance partners.

Scholars suggest three partnering strategies that nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) can use to pursue strategic relationships in civil society networks: (a) the development of overlapping ties associated with network closure, (b) adopting an intermediary role between two disconnected organizations associated with brokerage, and (c) complying with the match-making demands of third-party organizations. Collaborative relationships among 489 NGOs were examined over a 14-year period (1990-2004) to determine which of these strategies NGOs use and when. The network demonstrated a strong preference for closure at the beginning of the observation period, after which time partnerships settled into a more stable pattern of intra-sector collaboration after 1996. Brokerage and constrained-choice strategies were not prevalent at any point over the observation period. Results are discussed in terms of network evolution and implications of the observed NGO preferences for closure. The potential benefits of emergent stability are also discussed.