Methodological Challenges of Empirical Studies on Government-Nonprofit Service Delivery: Toward a Dynamic Approach

Empirical studies have shown that government and human service nonprofit organizations have maintained active partnerships to deliver human services for the past several decades. However, the previous researches on resource dependent government-nonprofit service delivery have revealed serious methodological limitations to adequately demonstrate the dynamic relationship between both sectors over time. Since the dynamics underlying the government-nonprofit service delivery is a complex process, in which multiple factors dynamically interact over time, the assumptions of system dynamics can help improve these methodological drawbacks. This study aims to explore methodological issues and weaknesses observed in empirical studies on resource dependent government-nonprofit service delivery in the United States, and further attempts to provide insights on future research toward a dynamic approach, bringing the assumptions of system dynamics to the challenges of the previous researches.