Healthy Families America

	Research: Research Findings
	Research Findings Program Information Management System (PIMS)	Research-Practice Collaboration (RPC) - Risk Analysis "...collaborations work best when meaningful integration between members occurs at five levels: the strategic, the tactical, the operational, the interpersonal, and cultural." - Rosa Beth Kanter, Collaborative Advantage: The Art of Alliances¹ Collaborations bring the imperative for a comprehensive risk analysis into sharp focus. Some of these risks will be common to all proposals, while others are unique to collaborations. Only a careful inventory will identify research risks inherent in the money, capital equipment, personnel, and process to be committed to an alliance.² In assessing and prioritizing risks here are some questions worth asking: Which core competencies will be involved in the alliance and how can they be protected? What types and degrees of dependence on others in the collaboration are acceptable? How can opportunism by our partners in the consortium be contained? How would additional institutional members or research teams affect the risk potentials? Why, how, and when will the collaboration dissolve? What are the chances that unique values will be created? Will the foregone opportunities make them worthwhile? Will the team be able to do what they promise? How likely is it that competition will be able to do the work faster, cheaper, or better and will this threaten the collaboration? Footnotes: 1. Kanter, Rosa Beth (1994). "Collaborative Advantage: The Art of Alliances" in Harvard Business Review, July-August, pp. 96 - 108 2. Veigel, Jon. M (2000). Good Science Plus Bad Management Equals Bad Science. Read it online.
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