We evaluate the relationship between hospital ownership and responses to a policy providing large financial incentives for vaginal deliveries and financial disincentives for C‐sections. We compare ...for‐profit, nonprofit, and public hospitals operating in a public health care system organized according to the quasi‐market model. We first theoretically show that hospital ownership matters insofar different hospitals are characterized by different ethical preferences. We also show that competition makes ownership less important. We then consider the case study of Lombardy in Italy. We exploit spatial variation in hospital ownership and in market concentration at the local level to evaluate the relationship between ownership and the probability of C‐section. According to theory, empirical results strongly suggest that competitive pressures from alternative providers tend to homogenize behaviors. However, in local monopolies, in presence of a strong monetary incentive toward vaginal deliveries, we do observe less C‐section from private for‐profit hospitals than from public and private nonprofit hospitals, especially when C‐sections are medically appropriate.
Widespread government contracting for nonprofit social service delivery has resulted in extensive reliance on networks of service providers, which involve complicated accountability dynamics. The ...literature has tended to emphasize formal aspects of accountability in contract relationships, focusing on the specification of contract terms, performance measures, reporting relationships, and stipulated consequences. Far less attention has been focused on the interorganizational and interpersonal behaviors that reflect informal accountability. This article examines the informal norms, expectations, and behaviors that facilitate collective action and promote informal accountability among nonprofit network actors. The data are based on in-depth interviews with nonprofit senior administrators in four major metropolitan areas. Based on this research, the authors propose a preliminary theory of informal accountability that links (1) the shared norms and facilitative behaviors that foster informal accountability for collective outcomes, (2) the informal system of rewards and sanctions used to promote and reinforce behavioral expectations, and (3) the challenges that may undermine informal accountability.
Understanding National Nonprofit Data Environments Bloodgood, Elizabeth A.; Bourns, Jesse; Lenczner, Michael ...
Nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly,
04/2023, Letnik:
52, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
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We develop the concept of the nonprofit data environment as all data collected and reported in a country resulting from law implemented into practice. We map data environments across 20 countries and ...propose explanations for differences between the information nongovernmental organizations report (collected) and what is made publicly available (reported). Domestic factors including regime type, civil society autonomy, and regulatory quality increase the amount of information collected and released publicly. Exposure to international political forces, including aid flows and globalization, increases the gap, which runs counter to expectations of greater openness with global engagement. Our findings point to the need for a better understanding of patterns in non-profit organizations (NPOs) data environments; while all governments collect information, countries with similar legal codes have widely varying data environments. This matters for NPOs as their ability to learn and improve depends on access to quality data and coincides with a feared global political backlash.
Social media is an important tool for nonprofit public policy advocacy. To help nonprofits effectively utilize social media in advocacy efforts, this study proposes a measurement framework of social ...media social capital based on social networks. Specifically, in this study, we examine the relationships between social media capital and symbolic, political capital on social media. We study how a group of nonprofits utilizes Twitter to advocate for the Green New Deal and their interaction with politicians, activists, and publics on social media during the 2019 presidential primaries. Our analysis shows that different dimensions of social media capital significantly influence nonprofits’ social media-based symbolic capital and political capital.
Advocacy, essential to the unique role of the nonprofit sector, is a term that suffers from a definitional morass that is both crowded and inconsistent, undermining research progress. This problem ...has been exacerbated by changes in our understanding of the wide variety of nonprofit and voluntary organizations involved in advocacy. To address construct clarity and help research bridge disciplinary silos, we present a framework that, while drawing clearer boundaries around the construct’s peripheries, integrates three major dimensions of organizational advocacy among nonprofits: goals, tactics, and motivations. This integrative framework focuses on the targets, contexts, and types of nonprofit actors associated with these dimensions, pointing to avenues for new lines of comparative research. We demonstrate how this framework can elucidate institutional change and advance the field by promoting new understandings of advocacy that better matches changing empirical reality.
This article examines the uptake of social justice and climate change as focal issues among the largest U.S. environmental nonprofits. We use 2016 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) filings to identify ...5,413 large environmental nonprofits of which 8% attend to issues of climate and 10% to issues of social justice. Larger organizations are more likely to attend to issues of climate change and social justice, as are groups founded more recently. Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic modeling of organizational mission statements and descriptions of major activities is used to assign groups to six distinct issue categories. Results highlight the divide between wildlife groups that are decidedly unlikely to attend to issues of either climate or justice, and the rest of the national environmental movement. Energy and natural resource groups, while strongly vested in climate issues, rarely attend to social justice. These findings have clear implications for climate and justice advocates seeking change in the environmental advocacy sector.
Does current accumulated wealth by nonprofit organizations influence contributions from individuals? Existing research demonstrates that financial reserves aid program continuity during economic ...downturns. Yet donors, charity watchdogs, and policy makers voice concern about accumulated wealth in nonprofits. This empirical analysis examines whether the expected negative relationship occurs when donors perceive accumulated wealth as excessive. The results support the conclusion that future contributions are negatively affected when wealth levels are deemed excessive. Nonprofit managers concerned that accumulated wealth will diminish donations should consider financial strategies that will allow their organizations to build modest—but not excessive—reserves.
In recent years, the emergence of new legal forms allowing for-profit firms to incorporate with a formal commitment to both profit and social purpose has disrupted the traditional American ...business-charity dichotomy. The arrival of these hybrid firms can be expected to affect the functioning of markets and poses a potential challenge to the role played by large nonprofits that provide quasi-public services such as education and health care. We construct duopoly models of competition between a nonprofit firm and either a traditional for-profit firm or a hybrid firm, simultaneously choosing output levels of a homogeneous good. We show that when the nonprofit competes with a hybrid firm it becomes less competitive in the sense that its output level contracts, it raises less net revenue with which to fund charity care, and it is more easily driven out of the market.
This study examines the effects of human and structurallprocess factors on two types of innovation — administrative and technological — in a sample of nonprofit organizations. The results indicate ...that factors that are favorable to administrative innovations differ from those that are conducive to technological innovation. Three variables are significant predictors of administrative innovation: centralization, transformational leadership, and the executive director's job tenure. Transformational leadership contributes significantly to the model of technological innovation. Based on the results of this study, the author provides implications for nonprofit management and future research.
We describe the competitive environment of microcredit markets globally and we study the effects of competition on loan rates of microfinance institutions (MFIs). We use a new database from rating ...agencies, covering 379 for-profit and nonprofit MFIs in 67 countries over 2002–2008. Controlling for interest rate ceilings and other country-specific factors, we first find that nonprofits are relatively insensitive to industry-wide concentration changes, while for-profits charge significantly lower rates in less concentrated markets. Second, we find spillover effects between the for-profit and nonprofit segments. Third, we show that the effects of concentration are consistent with an information dispersion mechanism.
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