Relational exchange in nonprofits: The role of identity saliency and relationship satisfaction

In practice and research pertaining to charitable giving, the emphasis has been on identifying the characteristics and motivations of donors, but few have asked why donors continue to support a particular nonprofit. This study examines the relationship between renewing donors and nonprofits and their impact on charitable giving levels using identity salience and relationship satisfaction as key mediators of nonprofit relational exchange. In a survey of 719 repeat donors in the United States, to a broad range of nonprofit organizations, identity saliency and relationship satisfaction are introduced as mediating constructs, and the results confirm that both constructs partially guide donor motivations and charitable giving. Theoretically, this suggests that the more a donor identifies with a nonprofit organization and the more satisfied the donor is in the relationship with the organization, the higher their intention to donate. This finding supports previous research in segmentation strategies and service‐dominant logic in the nonprofit sector. Managerial implications of this research include indication of a paradigmatic shift from relational exchange to transformational exchange (or value cocreation) in nonprofit organizations' approach to donor cultivation.     

Governance Structure and Exit: Evidence from California Hospitals

Most inpatient and emergency health care services in the U.S. are delivered by non-profit organizations. To understand the impact of policies that are designed to affect competitive outcomes in hospital markets, it’s important to understand whether the “non-profit” structure changes the behavior and competitive conduct of firms. Given the complexity of the product space within which hospitals operate, we focus on more easily interpreted decisions within the hospital market: entry and exit. Using comprehensive administrative data for the universe of California hospitals from 1980 to 2013, we document the observed entry and exit behavior. We estimate flexible exit policy functions and demonstrate a difference in behavior between for-profit and non-profit firms that exists after accounting for several observable characteristics of hospitals. We find differences in observed behavior: this is a finding that strongly suggests that there are differences in the underlying objective function of the various firms.     

a colonial example for the old lady

How could independence be given to the Bank of England? Robert Miller, secretary of the Shadow Monetary Policy Group (and Editor of Economic Affairs), argues that Britain should follow the example of New Zealand and give conditional independence to the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street.     

Criticas factors in the successful development of an area labor-management committee

Despite growth of knowledge concerning labor-management cooperation and employee involvement, much remains to be learned about the process of establishing these organizational arrangements. The development of area labor-management committees is an aspect of the process that needs to be more thoroughly understood. This article reports a study of factors that influenced the development of two West Virginia area committees, one of which was relatively successful and the other unsuccessful. The findings, based on systematic evaluations of both committees, identify factors that account for the differences in the committees' success. Among these factors are the influence of a respected community leader; involvement of unions and management that are cooperating at their own plant sites; the service of a capable executive director; and training of executive board members.     

Ethical challenges in corporate-shareholder and investor relations: Using the Value Exchange Model to analyze and respond

Shareholder and investor relations, and the closely related area of corporate governance have been the arenas of much dispute, much of which has not been confined to practical financial matters. Ethical challenges have come as well from persons and groups with widely differing value systems. This paper presents the Corporate Value Exchange Model (CVE) as a framework for analyzing the corporate-shareholder and corporate-investor relationships, and for formulating decisions that can respond ethically to these groups without subordinating the interests of other constituents.Richard Lee Miller is Associate Professor of Management and Graduate Faculty at the University of Dayton. He has numerous articles published in journals and proceedings, the most recent of which have been on various applications of the value exchange theory.     

Managerial Incentives: Implications for the Financial Performance of Real Estate Investment Trusts

In the face of informational asymmetry, REIT equity investors may bear the costs of agency. Hence, it is in shareholders' interests to pay incentive fees to induce managers to utilize their superior information and to take suitable actions that reduce these costs. In this paper, the relation between financial performance and fees paid, and between fees paid and contractual incentives, are examined to determine whether equityholder interests are being served by the decisions of REIT managers. The data reveal that fees paid and financial performance are positively related, indicating that financial performance is at least partially endogenous with respect to managerial action. Moreover, the evidence also suggests that the industry fee structure has changed over the period in a manner that appears to have reduced the agency costs borne by equityholders, and by the end of the sample period the fees paid in general seem to reflect incentives that are consistent with the wealth maximization goal of equityholders.     

Product—Market Choices and Growth of New Businesses

The relationship between product–market strategies and the growth of new firms is incompletely understood. The lack of understanding reflects the absence of a conceptual framework that would explain why certain product–market strategies achieve specified goals more effectively than do others. Prior research links product and market strategy to business growth, but does not clearly separate product line choices from market choices, and provides little guidance with respect to the sequence in which product and market changes should be made. Richard Cardozo, Karen McLaughlin, Brian Harmon, Paul Reynolds, and Brenda Miller propose a "wave" model of product–market choice, which yields hypotheses they evaluate with data from a subsample of 120 firms drawn from a representative sample of new businesses. Results yield preliminary guidelines for product–market strategy for managers of fledgling businesses.