Success and Failure of Nonprofit Organizations: Theoretical Foundations,Empirical Evidence,and Future Research

Success and failure of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) have been prominent themes in the nonprofit community for more than 30 years. However, since there is no common understanding on success and failure of NPOs, the research field is still fragmented. Drawing from research on organizational success and failure in the for-profit context as a theoretical background, this paper systemizes the academic knowledge on NPO success and failure. By shedding light on theoretical approaches used, empirical evidence on the determinants of these constructs, and the sectors analyzed most frequently in this regard, the paper develops an instructive research agenda concerning studies on success and failure of NPOs.     

Kritische Ereignisse und private Überschuldung

This article investigates in how far critical life events (e.g. unemployment) as well as financial shocks triggered by such events affect the probability of private households to enter over-indebtedness (shock hypothesis). Second, we examine if the effect of such events is mitigated by coping measures set by the household after the critical event and/or financial shock has occurred (coping hypothesis). Third, we test if the effect of critical events/financial shocks also depends on the household structure and its financial circumstances (vulnerability hypothesis). To test these hypotheses, we use panel data from the ECHP (1995–2001) and EU-SILC (2004–2008) for Austria. We estimated multivariate panel regression models which allow controlling for unobserved, time-invariant factors. Results suggest that financial shocks have a positive and significant effect on the likelihood of becoming over-indebted, while we did not find evidence for a direct effect of critical life events on over-indebtedness after controlling for unobserved time-constant factors in the fixed effects regression specifications. Regarding the coping hypothesis, evidence for a diminishing moderation effect of cost-saving strategies by households is weak but robust. Similarly, there is some evidence to support the vulnerability hypothesis—but only for some of the indicators chosen to reflect household vulnerability. Overall, our results indicate that causes to enter over-indebtedness cannot be exclusively reduced to either exogenous shocks or behavioral factors.     

Output-sensitive algorithms for Tukey depth and related problems

The Tukey depth (Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians, vol. 2, pp. 523–531, 1975) of a point p with respect to a finite set S of points is the minimum number of elements of S contained in any closed halfspace that contains p. Algorithms for computing the Tukey depth of a point in various dimensions are considered. The running times of these algorithms depend on the value of the output, making them suited to situations, such as outlier removal, where the value of the output is typically small. This research was partly funded by the NSERC Canada.     

The resource-based view of diversification success: conceptual issues, methodological flaws, and future directions

After more than 20 years of empirical research, the resource-based view of the multibusiness firm has emerged as a promising paradigm for explaining diversification success—one of the most investigated research questions within the field of strategic management. However, because various dimensions of resource-relatedness, synergistic effects, and moderating influences are investigated at diverse levels of analysis, the findings are very fragmented. Our review and critical assessment of the research reveals a number of conceptual issues and methodological flaws that had already constrained heavily traditional diversification research. Consequently, we suggest promising directions for future research efforts that can put this important empirical application of the resource-based view of the firm on safer ground.     

The Volatility of Realized Volatility

In recent years, with the availability of high-frequency financial market data modeling realized volatility has become a new and innovative research direction. The construction of “observable” or realized volatility series from intra-day transaction data and the use of standard time-series techniques has lead to promising strategies for modeling and predicting (daily) volatility. In this article, we show that the residuals of commonly used time-series models for realized volatility and logarithmic realized variance exhibit non-Gaussianity and volatility clustering. We propose extensions to explicitly account for these properties and assess their relevance for modeling and forecasting realized volatility. In an empirical application for S&P 500 index futures we show that allowing for time-varying volatility of realized volatility and logarithmic realized variance substantially improves the fit as well as predictive performance. Furthermore, the distributional assumption for residuals plays a crucial role in density forecasting.     

Local Partitioned Regression

In this paper, we introduce a kernel‐based estimation principle for nonparametric models named local partitioned regression (LPR). This principle is a nonparametric generalization of the familiar partition regression in linear models. It has several key advantages: First, it generates estimators for a very large class of semi‐ and nonparametric models. A number of examples that are particularly relevant for economic applications will be discussed in this paper. This class contains the additive, partially linear, and varying coefficient models as well as several other models that have not been discussed in the literature. Second, LPR‐based estimators achieve optimality criteria: They have optimal speed of convergence and are oracle‐efficient. Moreover, they are simple in structure, widely applicable, and computationally inexpensive. A Monte Carlo simulation highlights these advantages.     

A Bedrock of Support? Trends in Welfare State Attitudes in Sweden, 1981–2010

This article reports findings about Swedes' attitudes towards the welfare state from 1981 to 2010, building on data from the Swedish Welfare State Surveys. Attitudes towards social spending, willingness to pay taxes, attitudes towards collective financing and public organization, suspicion about welfare abuse, and trust in the task performance of the welfare state are tracked. Overall, there is a large degree of stability in attitudes, and where change is registered, it tends to go in the direction of increasing support. More people state their willingness to pay higher taxes for welfare policy purposes; more people want collective financing of welfare policies; and fewer people perceive extensive welfare abuse in 2010 than was the case in previous surveys. Class patterns change so that the salaried and the self‐employed become more similar to workers in their attitudes. Hence, the unprecedented election loss of the Swedish Social Democrats in 2010, and the rise of the Moderates (conservatives) as the dominant party cannot be explained by changing attitudes towards the welfare state. Nor can any corrosive effects from increased marketization of the Swedish welfare state on public support for welfare policies be detected.     

Young,successful, precarious? Precariousness at the entry stage of employment careers in Germany

ABSTRACT

The article investigates entry-stage employment trajectories of young people in Germany, asking whether transitions into continuous employment indicate successful labour market integration. Applying a novel multidimensional approach to precariousness to individuals’ employment and household trajectories, we understand entry-stage employment trajectories holistically. The balanced-panel sample is drawn from the German Socio-Economic Panel, with a focus on young men and women between 15 and 25 years of age in the first year of the sample period who had been employed at least once (n?=?1360).

Dual-channel sequence-cluster analysis reveals considerable variation in the precariousness of young people’s entry-stage employment. While almost all young men and women experience periods of precariousness, the durations vary substantially. Precarious employment or precarious living conditions frequently occur during education. Our results confirm that individuals with disrupted employment trajectories are seldom successfully integrated into the labour market and frequently experience precarious employment. In previous research, transitions into continuous employment have been understood as the hallmark of successful labour market integration. This holds true for young women but not for young men, who experienced continuous and precarious entry-stage employment. To correctly identify young men’s successful labour market integration, additional information about their employment precariousness is required.     

Discussion: Nonparametric estimation of noisy integral equations of the second kind

This is a discussion of the paper “Nonparametric estimation of noisy integral equations of the second kind” by Enno Mammen and Kyusang Yu.