Nonprofit governance during organizational transition in voluntary associations

This explorative field study examines the governance challenges that voluntary associations face in the transition from an internal focus on members to the provision of services to mainly nonmembers. This transition is an important stage in the life cycle of many associations. A qualitative research design was used to study five Swiss patient organizations. This article describes the transition process in terms of five main management challenges: different target groups, self‐help group versus competence center, cooperation, fundraising, and transparency. It then examines the implications for four governance aspects that confront managers and board members: recruitment and selection of board members, tasks of the board, relationship between the board and managing director, and the role of the general assembly of members.     

The Nonprofit Catallaxy: An Austrian Economics Perspective on the Nonprofit Sector

This paper examines the nonprofit sector from the perspective of the Austrian school of economic thought. In contrast to the traditional market failure approach, the Austrian school locates the role of the nonprofit sector in the facilitation of the spontaneous order and the utilization of local dispersed knowledge about the societal needs through a Hayekian “discovery procedure.” Another contribution of the Austrian school is in calling attention to the “calculation challenge” faced by the nonprofit sector, i.e., the reduced role of monetary signals as the informational basis for decision making. The calculation challenge brings up the important issue of societal feedback mechanisms operating in the nonprofit sector. It is shown that, in the nonprofit sector context, this challenge takes the form of the accountability problem.     

EU economic governance and austerity: Exploring recent perspectives

This paper presents some of the main theoretical approaches which examine changes in the EU economic governance system during the current crisis. We review standard approaches of EU studies (neo‐functionalism, liberal inter‐governmentalism, and historical institutionalism), Marxist–regulationist political economists, and Bourdieusian sociologists. The paper illustrates how scholars utilize given intellectual tools to understand ongoing trends of political and institutional change. We suggest that Bourdieusian sociologists may be in a relatively better position to interpret governance reforms and this is briefly illustrated by looking at some empirical observations from researching the effect of EU economic governance reform on the management of public assets in Greece.     

Weber and church governance: religious practice and economic activity

The debate about the relationship between religion and economic activity in the wake of Weber has been cast largely in terms of belief and values. This article suggests an alternative focus on practice. It argues that taken for granted practices of church governance formed to-hand resources for the organization of economic activity. The argument is developed through an examination of the historical development of church governance practices in the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, with particular emphasis on the way in which theological belief gave rise to practices of accountability and record keeping. In turn such practices contributed to a 'culture of organization' which had implications for economic activity. A focus on governance practices can help to illuminate enduring patterns of difference in the organization of economic activity.     

Transforming Nonprofit Organisations into Social Enterprises: An Experience-Based Follow-Up Study

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - In unstable economic situations, transforming nonprofit organisations into social enterprises is crucial for achieving...     

A contingency approach to nonprofit governance

A number of contingency factors may be relevant for effective nonprofit organizations and their boards. Although all boards must fulfill certain critical roles and responsibilities, strategic choices can be made about adopting different governance configurations or patterns. These choices can be meaningfully informed by understanding organizational contingencies such as age, size, structure, and strategy—and, even more important, by external contingencies and environmental dimensions such as degree of stability and complexity. This article extends or layers contingency thinking beyond its traditional focus on an alignment between the external environment and the organization's structure to focus as well on the alignment of the organization's governance configuration with its structure and environment. Structural contingency theory in general, and specifically within nonprofits, is reviewed. Two cases are presented of organizations that used an approach based on contingency theory in an action research process to examine and change their governance configurations. The steps they followed may help other nonprofits adapt their governance structures and practices and fulfill their responsibilities for board assessment and reflection.     

Predicting attitudes toward road safety from present and future time orientations: An economic approach

Two concepts of time are proposed here: Present Time and Future Time. It is hypothesized that individuals make economic-like choices between the two kinds of time, as though they were ‘factors of production’. This general hypothesis is tested in the specific field of road safety: the higher the value of present-time and the lower the value of future-time, the more positive the attitudes toward speed. Hypotheses are also derived on attitudes toward active and passive security, active and passive maintenance, speedy cars and safe cars, strategies to overcome traffic jams. Results show that parameters of the relation between values of time and attitudes toward safety vary with sociodemographic characteristics.     

Balancing ‘full life’: An economic approach to the route to happiness

This paper presents a formalization and modification of Martin Seligman’s concept of full life, employing basic microeconomics. A class of Stone-Geary utility functions is proposed as an analytical tool for scrutinizing individual decision making with respect to a pleasant, engaged and meaningful life. Using this specification of Seligman’s concept, we explain why people may differ with respect to the levels of a pleasant, engaged and meaningful life that they are trying to achieve. Moreover, we modify Seligman’s full life to the concept of balanced full life. This extension requires that, in addition to differences in people’s preferences regarding various aspects of life, differences in their time opportunity costs also be taken into account. Finally, the unique role of a meaningful life is discussed.     

Donor Reactions to Commercial Activities of Nonprofit Organizations: An American Case Study

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - This paper raises two questions. Do donors to nonprofit organizations care about whether nonprofit organizations pursue...     

Affective virtuosity: Challenges for governance feminism in the context of the economic crisis

This article explores the possibilities and constraints for feminist knowledge production and diffusion, and its influence over policy making and public debate in the context of austerity and neoliberal governance. By analysing the process in which a group of Finnish academic feminists used their expert position to influence government policy in 2015–2017, the article illustrates the strategies they adopted to engage in political debates and how they negotiated the new political landscape. The research material was derived from two years of action research and participant observation and is considered through the theoretical lens of governance feminism. The article makes a distinctive contribution to extant theories of governance feminism, by drawing upon theories of affects and ambivalence as a complement to governance feminism's focus on discourses and co‐optation. We coin the term affective virtuosity to highlight the importance of affect in feminist knowledge production and diffusion, and in shaping the various perspectives available to feminist scholars in encounters with politicians and policymakers.     

Change in intergenerational economic mobility in Norway: conventional versus joint classifications of economic origin

Studies of mobility within both sociology and economics most commonly use a conventional classification of social or economic origin, based on the position of the father only. The questions raised in the paper is whether there has been a trend towards more economic mobility, and whether conclusions about change based on a joint classification of both mother and father differ from those based on conventional classifications. These questions are addressed on the basis of register data on the earnings of the total Norwegian population of mothers, fathers and children from 1967 and onwards. The analyses focus on the earnings of the cohorts born between 1955 and 1970, and their earnings at the age of 34–35. The results do not support the argument in previous research that intergenerational economic mobility has increased in Norway. Moreover, the results based on a conventional approach differ from those based on a joint classification including the earnings of both mother and father. Using the latter approach there is no indication of a trend towards greater openness.     

An Industry Fields Approach to Isomorphism Involving Australian Nonprofit Organizations

Structural similarity or isomorphism is expected among organizations in the same organizational field. Such a field matures with increasing interaction among the organizations in it. Using a random sample of Australian organizations, this paper compares isomorphism among nonprofit organizations regardless of industry with that among organizations in the same industry regardless of legal form. The results point to isomorphism especially in the healthcare industry, regardless of legal form. This finding adds weight to earlier research that questioned the operation of the nonprofit sector as an organizational field with enough interaction to produce isomorphism.     

Nonprofit agency dependence on direct service and indirect support volunteers: An empirical investigation

Thirty agency directors or volunteer coordinators were interviewed regarding the human resource techniques they use to attract and retain two types of volunteers: direct service and indirect support. Agencies that depend on direct (point‐of‐service) volunteers are more likely to bring volunteers on board and use the performance feedback process to guide any needed improvements. Role playing and mentoring are particularly effective training techniques for these volunteers. Despite the critical function of point‐of‐service volunteers, more sophisticated recruitment and screening techniques were not used, contrary to expectations. Agencies that depend on indirect support volunteers use the recruitment process to screen out those who would not be successful volunteers and terminate them quickly for lack of confidentiality and reliability, particularly if they have had on‐the‐job training. Agencies hesitate to terminate direct service volunteers even for lack of ability and violations of policies and procedures. Finally, agencies used nonmonetary rewards with indirect support, but not direct service, volunteers. Implications of these findings and others are discussed.     

Urban governance of the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan: An Urban political sociological approach to the case of Osaka

In this article, we first review current Japanese urban and regional sociological literature on the COVID-19 pandemic. Some empirical studies of the current conditions, challenges, and difficulties faced by urban communities with the pandemic have loomed large. Although urban governance of infectious disease control has been generally an important research topic in urban studies, there is limited research on this aspect, particularly in Japan. Then, we briefly examine the urban governance of the pandemic in Japan, with a focus on the case of Osaka. Specifically, by analyzing the meeting minutes of Osaka Prefectural Government's countermeasure headquarters, we shed light on what issues were mainly dealt with and what main organizational actors were involved. The results indicate that, in addition to the administrative and political collaboration between central, prefectural, and municipal governments, the involvement of industrial and professional organizations (e.g., medical and economic associations) is particularly salient. This is because the governmental sector in Japan lacks a strong legal framework and a policy implementation capacity for infectious disease control. Consequently, it has requested (through intermediary associations) that residents, businesses, and hospitals cooperate with the government to control the spread of the virus. With regard to the characteristics of the Japanese urban governance of the pandemic, more comparative research between cities and regions in the country and those in other countries will be one of the important issues for future Japanese urban and regional sociology.     

Mapping semantic meaning of corporate reputation in global economic crisis context: A Slovenian study

This paper raises fundamental questions about the meaning of reputation and its measurement. It also considers the context of the recent global economic crisis, which brought about the lowest levels of trust in corporations, and a serious erosion of reputational capital of the corporations previously regarded as highly reputable. It maps out the semantic content of corporate reputation in an attempt to capture the ideas that individuals associate with this concept and to contrast it with the established standard reputational measures of reputation. The empirical part is based on semantic network analysis, a special form of social network analysis, where connections are formed by the use of overlapping concepts. The results show that there are a few strong determinants of reputation. They mainly coincide with the established reputational measures; however, some strong determinates seem to be context-specific and reflect the current global economic and financial crisis. The findings of the study correspond to the proposition in the literature that reputation is socially constructed and deliver insights into the relevance of standard and universal reputational measures.