What makes partnerships work? Measuring agreement in participant beliefs regarding ‘core’ reasons for success

Successful partnerships between people with different backgrounds and distinct beliefs are essential to solve 21st-century problems. We conducted 44 semi-structured interviews and 80 surveys with participants of academic-nonprofit partnerships. We used Plackett-Luce statistics and cultural consensus analysis to analyze respondent beliefs regarding partnership success. Respondents consistently placed a high value on a subset of 'core' reasons that academic-nonprofit partnerships succeed and exhibited higher-than-expected levels of agreement regarding the order of importance of these 'core' reasons. The approach we present here can be used before, during, and after partnerships to improve the design, implementation, and evaluation of team science.