Contextual Factors and Negotiating Spaces: Exploring the Emergence of Nonprofit and Hybrid Voluntary Organizations

The emergence of nonprofit organizations has largely been explained by the prevalent “three failures” theory. However, evidence suggests that such theories fail to capture a variety of contextual nuances that may influence nonprofit formation. In particular, these theories have remained relatively silent about the emergence of hybrid voluntary organizations. This article posits the notion that some nonprofit organizations (for example, hybrid voluntary organizations) emerge through cross‐sector negotiations, amid a number of social, policy, and political contextual complexities. We contend that any theory purporting to explain the emergence of nonprofit organizations should not neglect to account for the role contextual factors play in defining their emergence and their subsequent character and function.     

How nonprofit human service organizations manage their funding sources: key findings and policy implications

Major findings and policy implications on how nonprofit social service organizations manage their funding relations are summarized. Data from in-depth case studies of six medium-sized social service organizations with distinctive funding profiles yielded findings on the major contingencies associated with controlling fees, the volatility of donations, and the driving force of public funding relationships for funders (public and private), nonprofit managers, and the role of nonprofit organizations.     

How does a board of directors influence within‐ and cross‐sector nonprofit collaboration?

Board members play a significant, yet largely unexamined, role in nonprofit collaboration. Processes, such as finding prospective partners, creating common ground with a partner, and establishing appropriate collaborative governance implicate nonprofit board members. In contrast to the scholarship of the role of interlocking directorates as potential networks for nonprofit collaboration, this paper examines the role of board members' social and human capital on nonprofit collaboration with other nonprofits, businesses, and government agencies. Drawing on online survey data from 636 nonprofit organizations, this paper finds that board social capital—but not board human capital—is positively related to the presence and number of within‐sector and cross‐sector nonprofit collaboration. However, board human capital enhances nonprofit‐government collaboration, when board social capital is also high. The results provide a novel perspective in nonprofit collaboration and board management research.     

To profit or not to profit: Women entrepreneurs in India

Entrepreneurial activity attracts certain kinds of individuals, whether it is to promote a social cause in the nonprofit sector or profit in the for‐profit sector. This article looks at the behavior of women entrepreneurs in India in both the for‐profit and nonprofit sectors to test for potential differences and similarities. We chose two groups of entrepreneurial women who founded and led relatively similar‐size organizations in the same city and who provided services primarily to women and children. Our findings show that while all nonprofit entrepreneurs receive a high payoff from promoting social causes, there is no single unifying payoff for for‐profit entrepreneurs. Family background and support, however, play an important role for both sets of entrepreneurs. We find that experience in the sector, social class, caste, and education in?uence entrepreneurial behavior and that this in?uence differs by sector.     

What Influences the Growth of the Chinese Nonprofit Sector: A Prefecture-Level Study

The nonprofit sector in China has experienced unprecedented growth in its scope and impact over the past four decades. Despite the significant growth, the distribution of nonprofit activities across localities is not well understood. This study combines administrative and census data to examine the size of the Chinese nonprofit sector across 334 prefectures. The study demonstrates a significant variation in nonprofit sector size across prefectures. The study further shows that population heterogeneity, government social spending, and government fragmentation have positive effects on boosting nonprofit sector size in a prefecture. Although diverse service needs affect the growth of the Chinese nonprofit sector, government activities play a more important role in mobilizing nonprofit activities and driving nonprofit sector growth.     

The Impact of Devolution on Nonprofits

The following article reviews the results of a multiphase study of nonprofit social service organizations serving children and youth in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. The purpose of the study was to assess the impact of devolution and related efforts to introduce the new public management in the nonprofit sector. Study results strongly suggest that the capacity of community-based and faith-based organizations to adopt the business-oriented approach required to meet the expectations of government contracts is profoundly limited by their financial and human resources and by the conflict that a market orientation can present to the nonprofit mission.     

The Role of the Nonprofit Sector in Hong Kong's Development

The recent handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China (PRC) brought Hong Kong worldwide attention and scrutiny. In the run up to the handover, the international media prominently featured stories about Hong Kong's freewheeling capitalism and the stability created by its administrative institutions. Lost in the media attention was the role of nonprofit organizations and the voluntary sector in Hong Kong's political and economic development. Although Hong Kong has a vibrant civil society, it has received little attention from scholars. This paper reviews the role of the third sector in Hong Kong's development. Among the issues the paper addresses are the legal codes that govern the creation and operation of nonprofit organizations in Hong Kong, the evidence regarding the role of the nonprofit sector in Hong Kong's development, particularly its relationship to the government and market sectors, and the implications of the 1997 transition for the nonprofit sector's role.     

Combined Effects: The Influence of Organizational Form and Structural Characteristics on Contract Performance in Mixed Sector Markets

Social service contracting to nongovernmental organizations is popular form of privatization across the world. Although nonprofits are preferable social service providers for legal and normative reasons, governments in the United States increasingly rely on for-profit organizations to deliver social services. This trend warrants further exploration about whether nonprofits or for-profits perform according to theoretical expectations when they exist in the same market. This study employs qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to examine how sector-public, nonprofit, and for-profit-combines with structural variables to produce acceptable contract performance in juvenile justice programs. QCA is a discovery-oriented research tool that determines whether combinations of variables within cases produce a specific outcome and whether those combinations are consistent across cases. I find sector is not a necessary or sufficient predictor of acceptable performance on its own. Rather it combines with market factors to lead to acceptable contract performance. Combinations vary by sector, indicating that sectors behave differently in similar circumstances. The primary theoretical contribution of this paper is to provide a nuanced account of contract performance in mixed sector markets.     

Pathways to sector selection: A conceptual framework for social enterprises

As hybrid organizations with financial and social objectives, social enterprises must balance competing logics for governance, stakeholders, and outcomes when considering organizational design and structure. The existing legal landscape for organizations exacerbates this dilemma by forcing social enterprises to incorporate as either a nonprofit or for‐profit organization. This research examines the entity formation process for social enterprises by presenting sector choice as an interaction among four factors: equity financing, organizational lineage, human capital, and funding environment. Using a qualitative comparative case analysis, this research demonstrates that contingent factors drive sector choice when legal incentives and institutional pressures are unclear. For those choosing nonprofit forms, the status of the parent organization—the organizational lineage—is determinative. For those operating in the for‐profit context, human capital is predictive. The resulting conceptual framework contributes to existing organizational theory on hybrid organizations by presenting the sector selection process as independent of the motives or legal incentives typically associated with sector choice. This research concludes with a discussion on the advantages of delaying the formal sector declaration process.     

Interorganizational network portfolios of nonprofit organizations: Implications for collaboration management

Increasingly, nonprofit organizations engage in interorganizational collaboration to address large‐scale social problems. Scholarship typically focuses on the characteristics of both within‐sector and cross‐sector partnerships of two collaborating organizations or all partnering organizations involved in a collaboration, but we know little about the patterns of interorganizational relationships that single nonprofit organizations maintain. This research draws upon surveys from 452 nonprofits and introduces nonprofit network portfolios, which we define as the number, integration, intensity, and duration of relationships that nonprofits purposefully develop with other organizations. Using 12 network measures, Ward cluster analysis revealed three distinct network portfolios: restricted within‐sector (n = 319, 70.58%), which included limited collaboration and prioritized within‐sector partnerships; robust within‐sector (n = 80, 17.70%), which included more nonprofit partnerships than restricted within‐sector portfolios; and cross‐sector (n = 53, 11.72%), which had a rich assemblage of integrative partnerships with nonprofits, businesses, and government agencies. Further, nonprofits that maintained each type of portfolio differed in their revenue and social mission, suggesting these factors are related to the types of collaboration that nonprofits maintain. This study makes contributions to existing research on interorganizational networks and cross‐sector collaboration and suggests practical and policy implications for nonprofit network management.     

Managerial Control and Strategy in Nonprofit Organizations: Doing the Right Things for the Wrong Reasons?

This article presents the second stage of a study that engages with the debate that has occurred within the nonprofit literature about the propensity and relative merits of nonprofit organizations adopting for‐profit approaches to management. Specifically, this qualitative investigation examines the ways in which nonprofit organizations use management control when implementing their chosen strategies. Although this topic has been the subject of considerable attention in the management accounting research, it has rarely been explored within a nonprofit context. This is surprising not only because of the considerable social and economic impact of this sector, but also because of the apparent trend toward sectoral convergence in many structural and processual respects, including strategic behaviors and approaches to control. Based on interviews with CEOs and senior executives in thirty‐two Australian nonprofit organizations, we find that the relationship between strategy and control in nonprofit organizations is similar to that in for‐profit organizations, but quite different reasons underlie nonprofit organizations' exercising of management control.     

The Contribution of NPOs to Family Policy Formulation in EU Member and Applicant States

This paper examines the role of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) in the process of family policy formulation in eight member states and three applicant states of the European Union. Drawing upon interviews with representatives from the nonprofit sector, the author argues that the experiences of NPOs in family policy-making vary considerably between countries because of the way state–nonprofit relations operate. Social origins theory illustrates why these variations exist by pointing to broad societal influences on the nonprofit sector, but new empirical evidence presented here suggests that, in a particular policy field, other factors, such as the significance of the field on policy agendas, the strength of one particular organization in a specific cultural context, party ideology, and financial viability of the NPO, shape the role of organizations in the formulation of policies     

Strengthening Resource Mobilization Chains: Developing the Social Media Competencies of Community and Voluntary Organizations in New Zealand

There is potential for nonprofit organizations to increase effectiveness by mobilizing social media to help achieve goals. However, the sector is only just becoming aware of the possibilities for social media and lags behind other sectors in its use. We report a New Zealand initiative to enhance the capability of nonprofit organizations through action research that has implications for nonprofit organizations elsewhere. Borrowing from resource mobilization theory, we introduce the concept of resource mobilization chains to explain the requirements for and obstacles to taking advantage of social media. A survey and two in-depth case studies found that nonprofit organizations demonstrated extremely limited familiarity with and use of social media. Participants were enthusiastic about the potential of mobilizing social media to achieve organizational goals, but struggled to take concrete steps to implement their aspirations. Lack of resources was a key obstacle identified in both survey and case study research.     

Gendered,Invisible Work in Non‐profit Social Service Organizations: Implications for Worker Health and Safety

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) play an important role in the provision of health and social services. In Canada the nonprofit sector includes 7.5 million volunteers and employs over 1.6 million paid workers. The sector is overwhelmingly female‐dominated — women make up over 80 per cent of workers in these nonprofit services. Work performed by women has traditionally been undervalued and invisible. It has often been considered safe by researchers, employers, policymakers and sometimes even workers themselves. Although there is some indication that jobs in the restructuring social services sector can be characterized by constant demand, high stress and violence, research into the working conditions and health hazards of these types of jobs has not been a priority. Using data from a qualitative study examining work in NPOs, we trace the ways that work performed in these workplaces is both gendered and invisible. We identify three types of invisible labour. ‘Background work’ facilitates and supports more visible and recognized organizational activities. Certain organizational language obscures the full spectrum of work that takes place in the organizations and the risks it may involve. ‘Empathy work’ includes the relationship building, counselling and crisis intervention that comprise key components of social service delivery. ‘Emotional labour’ involves the management of client emotions and workers' own emotions in the process of working with clients and delivering care under conditions of scarcity and contraction. The invisibility of these activities means that much of the day‐to‐day work done in the organizations, while particularly important in the context of social service restructuring, is taken‐for‐granted and undervalued by organizational outsiders. As a result, many of the hazards present in the jobs are hidden from view and workers' health may be compromised. We argue that the invisibility and taken‐for‐grantedness of certain types of work in NPOs is reflected in, and constitutive of, particular exclusions and shortcomings of current occupational health and safety systems designed to protect the health of workers.     

The 990 return: Beyond the internal revenue service

The author recognizes the expanding role of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) 990 Return in understanding the nonprofit sector and monitoring the strategies, operations, and performance of individual nonprofit organizations, operations, and performance of individual nonprofit organizations. She identifies major problems with the IRS 990 Return relative to its broadened use and provides suggestions for minimizing the problematic interpretation of IRS 990 data.     

The effectiveness of nonprofit lead‐organization networks for social service delivery

Public agencies increasingly contract with nonprofit organizations to lead community‐based networks for social service delivery. We explore the role that partnership characteristics play in the effectiveness of these networks. Using data on children and family services in Los Angeles County, we consider the impact of both the motivations for forming partnerships and the nature of the resulting partnerships on perceived outcomes for clients, interorganizational relationships, and organizational learning. We find that client outcomes and interorganizational relationships are enhanced when partnerships are formed to meet certain programmatic and organizational goals. Organizational learning, however, is affected only when partnerships are formed to enhance organizational legitimacy. Partners selected because they share common vision increase effectiveness, while those selected because there are few alternative partners decrease effectiveness. Finally, when partnerships use an interorganizational coordination mechanism, client outcomes are improved. The managerial implications of these impacts for the nonprofit sector are developed. The results lend considerable support to the role of partnership motivation and partner selection in the effectiveness of nonprofit lead‐organization networks, and specificity about the nature of that role.     

Uncharted Waters: Exploring the Relationship between Strategy Processes and Management Control Systems in the Nonprofit Sector

The way in which strategy and management control combine has been the subject of much research attention, but rarely, within a nonprofit context. This is surprising, not only because of the considerable social and economic impact of this sector, but also in view of the apparent trend toward sectoral convergence in many structural and processual respects, including strategic behaviors and approaches to control. In this article, we explore the extent to which the relationship between management control and strategy, as found in for‐profit organizations, may prevail within a nonprofit context. Based on questionnaire responses from 182 Australian nonprofit organizations, we find that this relationship in nonprofit organizations is similar to that in for‐profit organizations, thereby lending support to the “convergence” argument. We reflect on the reasons for these similarities and advance an agenda for further research in this area.     

The Blurring Hypothesis Reconsidered: How Sector Still Matters to Practitioners

This article asks: Is sector still a useful concept for social science research on nonprofit organizations and related fields, such as social entrepreneurship? We answer that it is relevant to practitioners for whom sector boundaries remain an important orienting feature of their organizational worldviews. This observation is at odds with the recent scholarship on “blurring” sector boundaries, much of which suggests that sector is increasingly an outdated concept. Data from one uniquely blended space—the fair trade industry—coupled with insights from Scott’s (Institutions and organizations: ideas, interests, and identities, 2014) theory about the three pillars of institutions suggest that sector remains meaningful despite developments that appear to render it obsolete.     

Wage Inequality and Performance in Nonprofit and For‐Profit Organizations

This article examines the effects of several forms of wage inequality on service quality and employee effort. We suggest that two popular theories, tournament and fair wage/equity, are not necessarily competing. Each theory accurately describes aspects of employee behavior, but because of sectoral differences in organizational objectives and employee attitudes, tournament theory's predictions are relatively stronger in the for‐profit sector, while fair wage/equity theory's predictions are relatively stronger in the nonprofit sector. Using an employer–employee matched data set of nursing homes linked to a federal regulatory database and a resident survey, we found that ownership moderates the relationship between wage inequality and service quality. Although wage inequality positively affects service quality in the for‐profit sector, the reverse is true among nonprofit organizations. We also found that overall wage inequality in the workplace has a more pronounced influence on employee discretionary effort than does the employee's place in the distribution of wages.     

A Review of Models for Measuring Organizational Effectiveness Among For‐Profit and Nonprofit Organizations

Induced by unprecedented growth, invasion of for‐profit organizations in the nonprofit domain, and high‐profile cases of mismanagement in the nonprofit sector, a recent surge in the literature suggests ample opportunities for research to compare the organizational effectiveness of for‐profit and nonprofit organizations. This article presents a literature review of nonprofit organizational effectiveness from which four models of organizational effectiveness are selected. These models are discussed and analyzed because they apply to both for‐profit and nonprofit organizations.