Naivety and relationship marketing in nonprofit organisations

The widespread adoption of the language and concepts of marketing as a series of exchanges with customers continues to present problems to nonprofit organisations. Measured against marketing orthodoxy their approach to marketing might appear naive, but it is often effective. This paper discusses five differences between ‘orthodox’ and ‘naive’ marketing (nature of the exchange, focus of the encounter, attitude to technology, attitude to product and plans for the customer) to explore the nature of naive marketing. The role and importance of product or service in nonprofits is emphasised as a crucial difference. Finally, the emerging discipline of relationship marketing is argued to be a framework which vindicates many of the positions of naive marketers and to offer a valuable source of theory for nonprofit marketing.     

Trust in the investor relationship marketing of startups: a systematic literature review and research agenda

Management Review Quarterly - An important task of entrepreneurs is the management of investor relations. Past literature has emphasized the role of trust for managing relationships and regulating...     

Materialism,consumerism, and religion: A Buddhist vision for nonprofit marketing

This study delves into the interaction between materialism and religion and explores how consumers reconcile their religious precepts with materialism in today's consumerist society, with an ethnographic study of one of the world's largest Nichiren Buddhist organizations. The study reveals that instead of ideological ways of thinking that often resorts to rigid categorization, such as spiritualism at conflicts with materialism and liberalism opposing socialism, religion can transcend the spirit of materialism and the duality that characterizes most thinking. It can harmonize even the apparently contradictory entities of consumerism, materialism, and spiritualism and root itself in the reality of life, leading to an individual inner revolution and consequent social transformation.     

Positioning of the stakeholders in the interaction project management–project marketing: A case of a coconstructed industrial project

Based on a business‐to‐business (B‐to‐B) case within the automotive industry, this study proposes logics (constructivist and determinist, respectively) of protagonists and highlights the complexity of their dynamics during the successive project's phases. The concept of milieu will emphasize the complex business in which project marketing takes place; notably, it allows better identification of relevant relationships. Our article focuses on this concept of milieu with regard to the interactions between project marketing and project management actors during project phases. In particular, this article underlines the difference and the accommodation between the dynamics of interaction and the dynamics of congruence of marketing and management logics.     

Artists' attitudes to marketing: a cross-cultural perspective

• Although the music industry is dominated by a few global players, the vast majority of musical performances are by nonprofit organisations, self-employed musicians or small and medium enterprises (SMEs). But, while a great deal has been written about the marketing of music—distribution, branding, audience development, etc.—comparatively little is known about the attitudes of musicians themselves to marketing, despite the fact their role as both product and producer is so central to the musical experience.
• The research sets out to gain an understanding of this neglected topic by undertaking a cross-cultural analysis of musicians from two different cultures: it compares the attitudes of artists in a mature, post-industrial economy (UK) with those in a post-communist, emerging democracy (Poland). The research finds that society, culture and the economic environment appear to shape attitudes far less than art itself. Across both cultures the research discovers at best an ambivalence towards marketing, and at worst a general antipathy towards the whole notion of art-as-business.
• The implications of these findings, if replicated across other countries, other musical genres and across the arts as a whole, could be worrying. Historically, the arts have been dominated by nonprofit organisations funded at least in part by public and private subsidies, funds which are being substantially eroded in both mature economies and in developing nations. The challenge for nonprofits and SMEs in the arts, then, is about achieving some sort of engagement with business and marketing, without losing their artistic integrity in the process.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Understanding public awareness of nonprofit organizations: exploring the awareness–confidence relationship

• Public confidence has often been viewed as a critical indicator of legitimacy within the nonprofit sector. Indeed, confidence is believed to be among one of the sector's most important commodities. Surveys, however, have shown that the public does not always have much confidence in the performance of nonprofit organizations. Although this lack of confidence is certainly concerning, few studies have assessed whether the public actually has any awareness of what nonprofit organizations are, and no studies have examined the personal characteristics associated with more (or less) nonprofit awareness. Thus, by using individual‐level data from a survey of public attitudes toward nonprofits in San Diego County (n = 1002), the purpose of this study was to explore how individual characteristics relate to nonprofit awareness and to examine the extent to which awareness of the sector influences confidence in the performance of nonprofit organizations. The findings from the study indicate that nonprofit awareness varies by several individual‐level characteristics—with many of those likely to be the most dependent on nonprofit services being the least aware of the sector. The findings also indicate that awareness of the sector is the most significant predictor of confidence in the performance of nonprofits.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stakeholder communication in service implementation networks: expanding relationship management theory to the nonprofit sector through organizational network analysis

• Nonprofits increasingly participate in government-funded service implementation networks (SINs). However, extant research does not explore how organizations might strategically tailor communication to different stakeholder groups or use different communication tools for management. Stakeholders are not a monolithic group, and communicating with stakeholders within SINs is hypothesized to involve different forms of communication than communicating with stakeholders outside of the network. In this paper, relationship management theory is used to examine strategic communication with stakeholder groups within and outside of SINs. Both traditional and emergent (e.g., social media) forms of communication are examined. Survey and interview data on communication within and outside communication networks are analyzed using organizational network analysis techniques. The findings indicate strategic communication in the network differs from strategic communication with stakeholders outside the network. Within the network, organizations place varying emphasis on the use of traditional and emergent forms of communication for management, implying nonprofit managers funded under government grants continue to rely on face-to-face and phone communication and have yet to adopt emerging communication strategies to assist in the management of their programs with their partner organizations.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The key elements of a good market relationship between a nonprofit organisation's service recipients and its funders

There are many conflicts that a nonprofit organisation has to endure, but one of the most painful occurs when a funder and a service recipient want fundamentally different outcomes from the nonprofit organisation. This article shows some examples of organisations that have weathered successfully this type of situation and provides specific suggestions for managers to apply to prevent and solve such problems.     

A Buddhist perspective on death: An ethnographic study and implications for nonprofit marketing in grief support and terminal illness

The liminal state associated with terminal illness and death of a loved one is characterized by a marginalized experience, often accompanied by immense grief, confusion, isolation, and in cases identity crisis. There exists a range of issues that make marketing to these groups very different from marketing to non‐sensitive segments. This paper adds to the literature on marketing to sensitive groups by exploring the concept of death and implications for nonprofit organizations in grief support and terminal illness, with an ethnographic study of one of the world's largest Nichiren Buddhist organizations. It shows that Buddhist concepts of death can play a compassionate role for nonprofit organizations in countering the delusory fear and hopelessness of death for families and patients coping with bereavement and imminent death.     

Evaluation recommendations for nonprofit social marketing campaigns: An example from the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco‐Free Living

Nonprofit organizations with limited capacity and resources must be strategic when designing, implementing, and evaluating social marketing campaigns. The Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco‐Free Living, a nonprofit public health program, implemented a mass media campaign in 2012, with the goal of increasing advocacy for policy change around the smoke‐free movement. The campaign was accompanied by a mixed–quantitative evaluation that was grounded in the diffusion of innovations theory. The evaluation consisted of unique, yet complementary, analytical components, employing traditional survey methods to measure population exposure to the campaign and Google Analytics to segment campaign website visitors into actionable categories for future programmatic efforts. Results from this study demonstrate that the 2012 Tobacco‐Free Living mass media campaign was moderately effective in reaching its target audience and highly effective in using Google Analytics to identify a group of activists (i.e., innovators) in support of the smoke‐free policy change. This study offers several recommendations for nonprofit organizations to consider when implementing and evaluating similar social marketing campaigns.     

The four Cs of a successful central sterile supply-operating room relationship

Often, a director of materiel management's primary challenge is to transform a CSS-OR relationship that is plagued by criticism, cynicism, confrontation, and chaos into one that embodies communication, credibility, consideration, and consistency. The task, of course, is not accomplished overnight but rather through the development of strategic plans and periodic assessments to ensure that the four Cs become a reality.     

Internal competition in a nonprofit museum context: development of a scale

• External competition and marketing have been extensively researched in the for-profit environment and to a lesser extent in the nonprofit environment. However, the concept of competition within a nonprofit organization is indicative of another type of competition, that of ‘internal competition’. Internal competition, operating in the nonprofit's endemic environment of scarce resources, takes place between departments, between individuals, and even within individuals in terms of time and energy spent on differing objectives. Internal competition manifests itself as internal conflicts over not only objectives but also the means for achieving the objectives. This research examines the construct of ‘internal competition’ in the museum portion of the nonprofit sector where marketing is often seen as a ‘necessary but evil’ tool essential for survival. Museum retailing, which has taken on an increasingly vital role in the financial support of museums, offers an opportunity to analyze the nature of internal competition and for developing a scale for measuring internal competition.

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Measuring HRM effectiveness: Considering multiple stakeholders in a global context

Strategic human resource management research has mostly gravitated towards financial measures of performance in order to assess the effectiveness of human resource management initiatives. In this paper, we argue that focusing on organizational performance mainly from financial stakeholders' perspective is no longer sufficient. We discuss the implications of globalization, changing nature of work and the need to satisfy multiple stakeholders on how we measure the effectiveness of human resource management systems. We provide examples from several reach streams that focus on stakeholders other than shareholders as their main outcome of interest.     

A conceptual review of the love-hate relationship between technology and successful aging at work: Identifying fits and misfits through job design

Previous research suggests that technology can both enhance and undermine successful aging. However, few studies have combined insights on aging and technology in the work context. This paper aims to contribute to the literature on successful aging at work and STAARA technology by integrating these two literature streams through a job design perspective in a conceptual review. Based on insights from the literature on successful aging at work and technology we propose that STAARA technology can facilitate successful aging at work by reducing physical and emotional demands and increasing skill variety, autonomy, and support. Whereas STAARA technology can also harm successful aging at work by reducing autonomy, skill variety, and social support. Self-regulatory behaviors, an open workgroup climate, and HRM practices can help to minimize the potential misfit between technology and aging at work, whereas age discrimination is an important constraint. The propositions of this paper should be tested in future research.     

The state-of-the-art and future research directions in bequest fundraising by nonprofit organizations: A systematic literature review

The topic of fundraising is garnering increased attention from nonprofit practitioners due to the worldwide growth of the nonprofit sector and the subsequent competition for private funds. Despite this surge, academic literature on fundraising and bequest fundraising, in particular, has remained mainly limited to narrow aspects of the discipline. Based on a systematic review of literature published over the past 25 years, we synthesize various research perspectives into a comprehensive framework of studies linking the different issues highlighted by the authors. The purpose of this article is to consolidate the state of academic research on bequest fundraising by not-for-profit organizations. The literature review underscores how research efforts have not paid much attention to bequest fundraising from the NPO's perspective, although as it has become an increasingly important source of income for charitable organizations. The majority of studies focus on the Donor's perspective, striving to understand what drives the desire to leave a charitable bequest. The findings of the SLR show a gap in the knowledge of NPOs' internal mechanisms concerning the particular topic of charitable bequests; from these insights, the future research directions are proposed.     

Value congruence and job-related attitudes in a nonprofit organization: a competing values approach

Researchers have highlighted the importance of the nonprofit sector, its continued growth, and a relative lack of literature particularly related to nonprofit organizational values. Therefore, this study investigates organizational culture in a human services nonprofit organization. The relationship between person-organization value congruence and employee and volunteer job-related attitudes is examined (N = 227). Following initial qualitative enquiry, confirmatory factor analyses of the Competing Values Framework and additional values revealed five dimensions of organizational values. The relationship between value congruence, and employee and volunteers' job-related attitudes was examined using polynomial regression techniques. Analyses revealed that for employees, job-related attitudes were influenced strongly by organization values ratings, particularly when exceeding person ratings of the same values. For volunteers, person value ratings exceeding organization value ratings were especially detrimental to their job-related attitudes. Findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications.     

Factors influencing ethical climate in a nonprofit organisation: an empirical investigation

Drawing from Victor and Cullen's[Victor, B. and Cullen, J. B. (1987) ‘A theory and measure of ethical climate in organizations’, Research in Corporate Social Performance and Policy, Vol. 9, pp. 51–71.],[Victor, B. and Cullen, J. B. (1988) ‘The organizational bases of ethical work climates’, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 33, pp. 101–125.] theoretical framework a recent study by Agarwal and Malloy[Agarwal, J. and Malloy, D. C. (1999) ‘Ethical work climate dimensions in a not‐for‐profit organization: An empirical study’, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 20, pp. 1–14.] examined ethical work climate dimensions in the context of a nonprofit organisation. This paper reviews the framework and extends the study further by investigating several factors that influence the perception of ethical work climate in a nonprofit organisation. The multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA) procedure is employed to test nine hypotheses. Results demonstrate somewhat unique findings regarding factors that influence ethical climate perception in a nonprofit context. Specifically, the findings of this study point to the level of education, decision style and the influence that superiors and volunteers have upon ethical perception. Results also demonstrate that factors that have been employed traditionally by forprofit management, such as length of service, codes of ethics, size of the organisation and peer pressure, do not effectively influence ethical perception in the nonprofit context. Finally implications of this study are discussed. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications     

Applying the marketing concept to cultural organisations: an empirical study of the relationship between market orientation and performance

A recent trend in nonprofit organisations is an emphasis on business management and concepts. This paper examines the application of the marketing concept to nonprofit arts organisations through an analysis of the relationship between market orientation and organisational performance. Data were collected from arts organisations in two large Canadian cities, and a structural equations model was developed to test the impact of marketing activities and culture on three performance variables (customer satisfaction, peer reputation and resource attraction). The analysis shows that the model fits the data well and that six hypotheses pertaining to the relationship between market orientation and organisational performance were supported. The study concludes that those organisations that implemented more market‐driven activities into their marketing plans were more likely to develop a market‐oriented internal culture. A market‐oriented culture not only predicted a growth in resources and higher levels of customer satisfaction, but also a growth in reputation among peers. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications