Alexander Otgaar

Corporate Community Involvement in European and US Cities

We aim to identify the implications of corporate citizenship in general, and of collaboration between public and private actors in particular, for the development of cities. We analyse the changing behaviour of proactive firms in the field of community involvement, the spatial dimension of corporate citizenship, the added value of cross-sector partnerships, and the barriers to partnerships. We conclude that the trend of corporate community involvement provides new opportunities for the development of partnerships between proactive corporate citizens, city government, and other (public or private) organisations. However, the results suggest that the actual number of such partnerships is lower than expected. This lack of partnerships can be explained by looking at the internal organisation of companies and their potential partners, and the barriers in the coalition-forming process itself.