Does Cultural Background Affect Volunteering Behavior?

The purpose of this qualitative investigation is to help nonprofit organizations which rely heavily on the support of volunteers increase the effectiveness of their marketing by accounting for differences in cultural background among community members. It was conducted in the multi‐cultural Australian context and included 79 participants from different cultural backgrounds. Findings indicate that as a whole, cultural groups differ significantly with respect to their attitudes, social norm and perceived behavioral control over volunteering. Nonprofit organizations are unlikely to be successful in attracting volunteers from a range of different cultural backgrounds unless they account for heterogeneity among volunteers and customize marketing messages. To the authors' knowledge this is the first study that investigates differences in attitude, social norm and perceived behavioral control regarding an important social marketing issue: changing the volunteering behavior of individuals in a multi‐cultural society.     

Market Orientation and Organizational Performance in the Nonprofit Context: Exploring Both Concepts and the Relationship Between Them

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between the concepts market orientation and organizational performance for nonprofit organizations. To understand the nature of this link in the nonprofit context, the authors will discuss and elaborate on the applicability of both concepts to nonprofits. They will develop multidimensional notions of “societal orientation” and “nonprofit organizational performance,” which fit the specific operating environment of nonprofit organizations engaged in the provision of health and social services. The authors also propose a conceptual framework that relates both notions and present the main underlying propositions. They conclude by suggesting items to empirically measure both constructs and venues for future research.     

Does Victim Responsibility Influence Nonprofit Volunteerism?

Volunteers provide billions of dollars of nonpaid labor to nonprofit organizations every year. The purpose of this study is to better understand why volunteers join nonprofit organizations. The central research question examines victim responsibility. That is, does the circumstance of the victim influence a volunteer's willingness to donate time? A survey was designed to investigate the research question. The survey contained nine questions related to age and circumstance of the victim and the likelihood of volunteering. One hundred and seventy-five surveys were completed. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the data. The results indicate that volunteers are more likely to volunteer to help when the victims are not responsible for their circumstance.     

The nonprofit case for corporate volunteering: a multi-level perspective

ABSTRACT

This article argues that the nonprofit case for corporate volunteering is complex, requiring a multi-level perspective on the outcomes for nonprofit organizations (NPOs). To develop this perspective, we adopted an inductive research approach, conducting 39 exploratory semi-structured interviews with NPO staff. We argue that NPO scholars and practitioners should disentangle individual and organizational-level outcomes resulting from interactions between corporate volunteers and NPO staff, as such micro-dynamics ultimately affect NPO services. Moreover, these outcomes are subject to conditions at the organizational level (e.g. involvement of intermediaries), as well as at the individual level (e.g. type of assignment). Our study highlights the complexity that should be considered when addressing the fundamental question of whether corporate volunteering contributes to the ability of NPOs to provide their services, and under what conditions. We therefore propose that corporate volunteer management within NPOs is inherently, albeit contingently, intertwined with the services that these organizations provide.     

Feelings of ownership and volunteering: Examining psychological ownership as a volunteering motivation for nonprofit service organisations

Given many nonprofit service organisations rely on volunteers to provide valued services to their communities, examining the factors that impact the retention and recruitment of volunteers is of central importance for the success and longevity of many community-based services. Psychological ownership is a phenomenon whereby objects that are not physically or legally possessed can be the target of ownership feelings. While such psychological ownership has been examined in the paid-employment literature as an antecedent for prosocial behaviours, there has been no examination of psychological ownership within the volunteering literature. As such, this paper examines the role of psychological ownership as a factor in volunteer retention for predominantly community-based nonprofit service organisations by examining how the sense of ownership over the nonprofit service provider affects volunteering attitudes and intentions. Alongside ownership, previous volunteering behaviours, and time pressures are also examined as contributing factors. Results indicate that volunteering does increase ownership perceptions, and those ownership perceptions have positive outcomes for volunteering behaviours. However, time pressure is a significant moderator of these relationships and different volunteering behaviours can be observed for high and low time-pressured volunteers.     

Volunteer Brand Equity? Exploring the Adoption of Employee Brand Equity (EBE) Dimensions to Understand Volunteers’ Contributions to Build Nonprofit Organizations’ Brands

ABSTRACT

Given the importance of volunteers as key assets of formal volunteering organizations, this paper explores the adoption and adequacy of Employee Brand Equity (EBE) models to understand volunteers’ contributions to Nonprofit Organization (NPO) brand equity. Methodologically this research embraces a mixed-methods approach by combining data from exploratory interviews with experts from the NPO context and from a survey to 227 Portuguese volunteers from 28 formal volunteering organizations. This paper adds to the literature by applying for the first time EBE dimensions to the context of formal volunteering institutions. Hence, it provides a first step to the development of a Volunteer Brand Equity Model, by characterizing each dimension and validating its importance in the context of NPOs. From a practitioners’ viewpoint, this paper calls attention to the importance of embracing internal marketing strategies to attract and retain volunteers in a sustainable way and provides a practical tool for Volunteer Brand Equity analysis in NPOs.     

Segmenting Subgroups of Volunteers for Target Marketing: Differentiating Traditional Hospice Volunteers from Other Volunteers

SUMMARY

The research objective was to investigate if hospice volunteers could be differentiated from other volunteers using determinant variables from multiple conceptual domains (i.e., personality variables, social/lifestyle variables, demographic variables, and terminal values). Another purpose was to determine if higher performing hospice volunteers could be differentiated from lower performing hospice volunteers.

Lifestyle, demographic, personality, social influence, and terminal value measures were obtained from a sample of 63 hospice volunteers and 950 volunteers from other organizations. Survey respondents were derived from over 40 nonprofit organizations in two Midwestern cities.

In comparing hospice volunteers to volunteers serving in other types of organizations, hospice volunteers are differentiated by 11 determinant variables. One demographic variable (age), one social/lifestyle variable (the number of organizations to which the volunteer donates time for), and one personality variable (self-esteem) were significant. The remaining eight significant predictors of hospice volunteering were values.

An aspect of performance examined in this study is the average monthly hours hospice volunteers serve in their organizations. Because volunteers may serve in either single or multiple organizations, multiple analyses were performed using three different dependent variables (time volunteered in all organizations, time volunteered in primary organization, and number of organizations for which volunteer serves).     

Understanding International Volunteering: Who Is Most Likely to Participate?

International volunteers are playing an increasingly important role in meeting diverse challenges and improving lives of many across the world, and more opportunities for international volunteering are available across the nonprofit, government, and corporate sectors than ever. Nevertheless, little is known about international volunteering and the individuals who participate in this activity. This study examines the utility of the existing volunteering literature by testing how the traditional determinants of volunteering predict participation in international volunteering. The findings show that individuals who have attained post-secondary education, are from a high-income household, or are self-employed are most likely to volunteer internationally. The results also indicate that some of the known predictors of volunteering, such as age, race and gender, do not satisfactorily explain participation in international volunteering. This study concludes by providing suggestions for recruitment strategies, calling for further research on international volunteering.     

Volunteer Service as Symbolic Consumption: Gender and Occupational Differences in Volunteering

Volunteering is presented as part of the resource attraction function of nonprofit marketing, a type of helping behavior, and a form of symbolic consumption. From a sample of volunteers, findings show that male and non-working volunteers are more likely than female and working volunteers to spend more time on volunteering and to volunteer for more number of organizations. Females and working volunteers are significantly more empathetic than males and non-working volunteers. Male and female volunteers and working and nonworking volunteers are also differentiated in terms of their values. Managerial implications are discussed.     

The Impact of Familiarity and Perceived Trustworthiness and Influence on Donations to Nonprofits: An Unaided Recall Study

What affects donations? Is it all in “the ask,” or does brand image matter? In the nonprofit brands literature perceived trustworthiness and influence of the organization are important factors that increase constituents’ willingness to support an organization. We examined the association between a nonprofit organization’s familiarity, trustworthiness, and influence and the propensity of donations it receives. To this end, we used a questionnaire on attitudes toward nonprofit organizations and unaided recall of nonprofit organizations collected from a nationally representative sample. The attitudes data revealed that perceptions of nonprofits’ effectiveness and trustworthiness in Israel are not particularly positive. A multivariate fractional polynomial regression on the unaided recall results shows that while familiarity and perceived effectiveness are positively associated with the propensity of donations to nonprofit organizations, trustworthiness is not. We explain this surprising result by changes in Israeli social policy, political culture, and trust in institutions. We suggest different efforts that organizations can make to enhance their brand image and consequently increase donations.     

Market Orientation and Nonprofit Organizations

This paper discusses the concept of market orientation within the context of nonprofit organizations. Three elements of market orientation-market intelligence, intelligence dissemination, and responsiveness-are examined for their association with performance in nonprofit organizations. A conceptual framework is developed which identifies select senior management characteristics, organizational characteristics, and external factors as key determinants of market orientation and subsequent performance of nonprofit organizations. In all, fourteen propositions are advanced for future research. This conceptual work posits that nonprofit decision makers can create a market orientation by focusing on specific organizational and senior management characteristics, and adapting to certain external factors. The ultimate objective is to achieve and sustain organizational performance.     

Moral standards in managerial decisions: In search of a comprehensive theoretical framework

Although ethical decision‐making theory has evolved over the years, within the field of management, research still revolves around James Rest’s (1986) four‐step framework, dominated by a positivist epistemology and a quantitative methodology. Given that currently there is a call for a theoretical, epistemological, and methodological renovation for the enlargement and enrichment of knowledge about how decisions are morally made in organizations, this paper has a double aim. First, by showing the models’ main flaws and limitations, it critically assesses the prominent theoretical models of Rest, Trevino, and Jones. Then, for decision making in organizations, the paper aims to posit a fresh moral theory that addresses the phenomenon from a comprehensive epistemological perspective. To do so, it steps back from those prominent models in order to review John Dewey’s “theory of moral life.” At the core of the proposed comprehensive theoretical framework are Dewey’s concepts of a “moral standard” and “valuation.” Finally, the paper shows how the Dewey‐based framework can both overcome the flaws and limitations that are identified in those prominent models and can enrich empirical research, therefore contributing to developing as a whole the ethical decision‐making field.     

The 1939 New York World's Fair

Decades before the literature on marketing for non-profit organization emerged in Journal of Marketing, the New York World's Fair 1939 Corporation undertook the challenge to make the 1939 fair in New York City a truly “world's” fair. That nonprofit organization recognized, from its inception in October 1934, that only a customer-oriented marketing effort could transform a then ash-dump in Queens into a site where 60 nations and international organizations would ultimately construct memorable exhibits alongside showcases prepared by U.S. firms. While such a degree of foreign participation in a U.S. fair was unprecedented, success came largely because the nonprofit sponsors devised and executed a six-part international marketing strategy. This paper is a case study of how that nonprofit managed objectives, strategies, and tactics within an international marketing concept, with lessons still applicable for those managing such events in the 1990s.     

The Conceptualization of Nonprofit Marketing Orientation: A Critical Reflection and Contributions Toward Closing the Practice–Theory Gap

In this article three generations of research addressing the marketing construct in nonprofit organizations are critically analyzed: (a) market orientation in nonprofit organizations, (b) societal orientation, and (c) research contributions aiming to close the existing practice–theory gap on this topic. A qualitative study among 24 nonprofit marketers is conducted in Canada and Germany to develop a construct labeled nonprofit marketing orientation. It includes the dimensions of brand orientation, supporters’ orientation, commercial orientation, and service orientation. Furthermore, the authors describe the nomological net of nonprofit marketing orientation to present interconstruct relationships and to inform future research.     

A Content Analysis of Compatible Fit among Message Elements in Philanthropy Ads

This research examined philanthropy ad messages in terms of four key elements: philanthropy goal, beneficiary, expected fundraising impact, and how the suggested donation is appraised. A content analysis was carried out to systematically study ad messages from nonprofit organizations on the Philanthropy 400 list. Specifically, the frequency of appearance of each type of message elements was analyzed in terms of four theoretical concepts: regulatory focus (promotion vs. prevention goal), egoism/altruism (self vs. others as beneficiary), temporal orientation (present vs. future fundraising impact), and efficacy appraisal (self- vs. response-efficacy in how a donation is appraised). Since past research further suggests that persuasion may be enhanced when message elements are well matched in terms of “compatible fits,” this study further analyzed how the four message elements were combined in usage. The findings of this research show that while most nonprofit organizations actively utilized all four types of elements in their messages, the current practice did not follow the guidelines as would be suggested by compatible fits literature. In this respect, more research is needed to understand the discrepancy and provide better guidelines for future communication strategies in the nonprofit sector.     

Why Do We Read On‐Pack Nutrition Information so Differently? A Typology of Reading Heuristics Based on Food Consumption Goals

While prior research has extensively studied nutrition labeling use and consumer errors of judgment in the nutrition evaluation process, less attention has been paid to the consumer motivations that simplify the reading of on‐pack nutrition information. To address this gap, this study examines how food consumption goals affect consumer reading of this information. On the basis of a qualitative study, eight food consumption goals have been identified and classified into four types of motivations which impact reading behaviors: “Food Optimization,” “Food Regulation,” “Food Gratification,” and “Food as Mere Necessity.” From this typology, we derive eight on‐pack nutrition information reading heuristics as well as specific inference biases resulting from these simplifying reading strategies. This research also provides guidelines for policymakers so that nutritional messages given to consumers will be more targeted in order to promote better reading of on‐pack nutrition information at the point of sales.     

Examining the Influence of the Individual in Arts Sponsorship Decisions

Support from the corporate sector is an important revenue source for many nonprofit organizations. In this article, we consider individual-level influence within the decision-making processes of companies as they make decisions concerning nonprofit arts sponsorship. These decisions have often been linked to the influence of a single high-level executive, and the research contained here seeks to better understand the role of the individual in influencing these decisions. Through qualitative multiple-case research the authors find that a single individual, termed the advocate, is in fact influential. Furthermore, the advocate is determined not by their title or official ranking but by their possession of expert power, a combination of knowledge and the belief of others in that knowledge. In addition, how individuals influence these decisions relates to their application not of gut instinct, but of informed intuition. The article closes in suggesting new perspectives that will assist in better understanding this role.     

Using Video to Build an Organization's Identity and Brand: A Content Analysis of Nonprofit Organizations' YouTube Videos

Organizational scholarship has increasingly focused its attention to how nonprofit, for-profit, and government agencies develop their unique organizational identity through their strategic communication efforts. As social media continues to become more prominent in communication campaigns due to the high levels of public usage and public involvement with organizations on social media sites, it is important to examine these social media messages as they relate to organizational identity. YouTube videos increasingly are being used by organizations to educate and inform just as much as they are to entertain. Through a content analysis of the most viewed videos on the top 100 official nonprofit YouTube channels, this study found that nonprofit organizations primarily use their YouTube videos to inform and educate viewers about their missions, programs, and services. While the videos also occasionally discuss the organizations' advocacy, volunteering, and fundraising efforts, nonprofit organizations were not living up to their potential in terms of engagement through direct appeals for involvement. Additionally, the organizations were more likely to use outsiders' words and stories to build the videos' narratives rather than using internal stakeholders. The benchmark numbers provided by this study reiterate key rules that are stressed in practitioner-oriented work on video production for branding and identity-building efforts.     

Achieving Competitive Advantage Through the Application of Open Systems Theory and the Development of Strategic Alliances: A Guide for Managers of Nonprofit Organizations

ABSTRACT

To effectively compete in today's competitive business environment, nonprofit organizations need to operate as open systems developing strategic alliances with key actors. To help managers of nonprofit organizations develop such relationships, open systems theory is explained, the phrase “strategic alliances” is defined, and a system of alliances is presented as a tool for identifying and analyzing potential relationships.