Crowdfunding for non-commercial initiatives

Organizations and individuals dealing with non-commercial initiatives are in permanent search for funding. Crowdfunding is an alternative way of collecting funds from general public through Internet-based platforms, which is currently gaining popularity all over the world. There are several research initiatives in that field that show the influence of different factors on the success of campaigns, both with commercial and non-commercial objectives. Non-profit nature of the project is named among key predictors of positive outcome. In this context, the purpose of this work is to check whether the tendencies detected by scholars are valid for non-commercial initiatives, especially those having socially aware objectives, posted on the Belarusian crowdfunding platform Ulej. The method used for validation of the research hypotheses is binary logistic regression and statistical test. The results showed that the dependent variable success is influenced by such independent variables as the funding goal, the sum collected, the number of sponsors and the average pledge. On the other hand, the effect of the duration period is not significant. Inferential analysis shows that there is no difference in the level of success between commercial and non-commercial projects and that social orientation does not increase the likelihood of meeting financial goals. The findings are opposite to those provided in literature. However that could be explained by the short period of functioning of platform and the small number of projects.

A model of cause-related marketing for profit-driven and non-profit organizations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe a model of cause-related marketing (CRM) for both profit-driven (PD) and non-profit (NP) organizations.
Design/methodology/approach – The model consists of two parallel internal and external organizational processes – one representing the process of a NP organization and the other a PD organization. They are interlinked as the outcome of a CRM-partnership is dependent upon their mutual efforts.
Findings – The authors argue that it is essential to remember that a CRM-partnership is a challenge and risk for both the PD and NP organizations that may harm their reputation and position in the marketplace and/or society. CRM has benefits as well as downsides that should not be underestimated nor neglected.
Research limitations/implications – Will the involvement of the PD or NP organizations in the resultant partnership be perceived as commercialism, altruism or a combination of both, in the marketplace and society? A focus on both processes opens up opportunities for further research.
Practical implications – A contribution is that the CRM-model may be used as a guide for both PD and NP organizations in order to reveal whether a CRM-partnership is appropriate for them with a potential partner or not. It may also indicate whether the motives are based upon commercial reasons or altruistic reasons or a combination of both.
Originality/value – The model enables these organizations to think through the process prior to engaging in CRM.

Strategic positioning in voluntary and non-profit organizations in the UK : exploring the experiences of British charitable organizations:Exploring the experiences of British Charitable Organizations

This thesis explores the strategic positioning [SP] activities of charitable organizations [COs] within the wider sector of voluntary and non-profit organizations [VNPOs] in the UK. Despite the growing interest in SP for British COs in an increasingly competitive operating environment and changing policy context, there is lack of research in mainstream marketing/strategic management studies on this topic for charities, whilst the specialist literature on VNPOs has neglected the study of SP. The thesis begins with an extended literature review of the concept of positioning in both commercial [for-profit] and charitable organizations. It concludes that the majority of theoretical underpinnings of SP that are prescribed for COs have been derived from the commercial strategy/marketing literature. There is currently a lack of theoretical and conceptual models that can accommodate the particular context of COs and guide strategic positioning practice in them. The research contained in this thesis is intended to fill some of these research gaps. It combines an exploratory postal survey and four cross-sectional case studies to describe the SP activities of a sample of general welfare and social care charities and identifies the key factors that influence their choice of positioning strategies [PSs]. It concludes that charitable organizations have begun to undertake SP to differentiate their organizations from other charities that provide similar services. Their PSs have both generic features, and other characteristics that are unique to them. A combination of external environmental and organizational factors influences their choice of PSs. A theoretical model, which depicts these factors, is developed in this research. It highlights the role of governmental influence, other external environmental forces, the charity’s mission, organizational resources, and influential stakeholders in shaping the charity’s PS. This study concludes by considering the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings on the study of charitable and non-profit organizations.

Hybridity in contemporary commercial organizations: implications for employee trust

This study advances the concept of organizational hybridity (OH). By doing so, it takes into account the individual level of analysis often neglected in organizational theory. More specifically, it aims to understand the implications of organizational hybridity for employees’ trust in contemporary commercial organizations. Informed and guided by current literature, this study argues that the current literature on organizational hybridity fails to adequately address the consequences of hybridity for employees' behaviour. The empirical study was conducted in 2014 using data collected via semi-structured interviews and document analysis. The study was based on a comparison of two case studies in Nigeria: Alter Securities Limited and Barak Petroleum Limited. A total of forty (40) interviews were conducted; twenty (20) from each organization. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. The main findings are that organizational hybridity in this study produced tensions that resulted in negative behavioural responses and employees’ distrust in the commercial hybrid organizations. However, employees’ identification with non-market orientated institutional logics such as family, philanthropic and religious logics is seen to facilitate their commitment, honesty, and trust in the organizations. Nevertheless, caution is required here as religious logics may also lead to an acceptance of unethical behaviour by employees. Overall, this study contributes to the literature on organizational hybridity by extending on Battilana and Lee’s (2014) framework, which highlights governance, leadership, organizational culture and intra-organizational relationships as core organizational attributes in the context of which issues may arise in commercial hybrid organizations. Furthermore, it addresses a gap in Besharov and Smith’s (2014) hybrid typology framework by providing an alternative line of argument focused on understanding how tensions manifest within commercial hybrid organizations. The key recommendations of this research underscore the need for commercial hybrid organizations to invest in mechanisms for improving employees’ trust so as to reap the benefits associated with trust. This could be achieved by involving employees in the decision-making process and clearly communicating the organizations’ values, so as to minimise the misinterpretation of the embodied institutional logics by employees.

The struggle for protection of environmental refugees: who's responsibility? Discourses from the United Nations and Non-governmental organizations

This thesis identifies, examines and problematizes some of the discourses that have so far come to light on the issue of protection for environmental refugees. By analyzing the discourses produced by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and two non-governmental organizations - the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) and Equity and Justice Working Group Bangladesh (EquityBD), I examine the struggling discourses that have emerged about how protection for environmental refugees has been interpreted. To do this, I rely on Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's theory and method of discourse analysis. The results show that responsibilization is the main point of struggle in the discussions on the protection of environmental refugees. As a floating signifier, it was utilized by the discourses produced by the UNCHR and the selected NGOs in contingent ways and with different political objectives. The UNHCR discourse responsibilized both the environmental refugees for their own protection and the individual states. The EJF and EquityBD, by contrast, allocated responsibility for the protection of environmental refugees to the international community. These contingent understandings of responsibilization necessitated different justifications. While the EJF discourse relied on humanitarianism for the assistance of environmental refugees, the EquityBD discourse constructed a rights based, more permanent solution. The humanitarian based discourse of the EJF was found to be inextricably linked with the neoliberal discourse produced by the UNHCR. Both these discourses encouraged environmental refugees to stay in their homelands, undermining the politics of protection. Another way in which protection was undermined was by UNHCR's discourse on securitization. In this context, climate change induced displacement became threat to developed countries, the global economy and transnational classes. The struggling discourses about who/what has been allocated responsibility for the protection of environmental refugees also meant that identities of the displaced be constructed in specific ways. While the UNHCR discourse constructed as voluntary migrants and predators, the EJF and EquityBD discourses portrayed them as victims. However, even though the EJF discourse constructed them as victims, their reliance on humanitarianism could also be interpreted as a way of giving the environmental refugee a predator like identity. These discourses on responsibilization and identity formation clashed with each other in the aim of achieving a hegemonic position in discussions and debates about the protection of environmental refugees.

The struggle for protection of environmental refugees: who's responsibility? Discourses from the United Nations and Non-governmental organizations

This thesis identifies, examines and problematizes some of the discourses that have so far come to light on the issue of protection for environmental refugees. By analyzing the discourses produced by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and two non-governmental organizations - the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) and Equity and Justice Working Group Bangladesh (EquityBD), I examine the struggling discourses that have emerged about how protection for environmental refugees has been interpreted. To do this, I rely on Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's theory and method of discourse analysis. The results show that responsibilization is the main point of struggle in the discussions on the protection of environmental refugees. As a floating signifier, it was utilized by the discourses produced by the UNCHR and the selected NGOs in contingent ways and with different political objectives. The UNHCR discourse responsibilized both the environmental refugees for their own protection and the individual states. The EJF and EquityBD, by contrast, allocated responsibility for the protection of environmental refugees to the international community. These contingent understandings of responsibilization necessitated different justifications. While the EJF discourse relied on humanitarianism for the assistance of environmental refugees, the EquityBD discourse constructed a rights based, more permanent solution. The humanitarian based discourse of the EJF was found to be inextricably linked with the neoliberal discourse produced by the UNHCR. Both these discourses encouraged environmental refugees to stay in their homelands, undermining the politics of protection. Another way in which protection was undermined was by UNHCR's discourse on securitization. In this context, climate change induced displacement became threat to developed countries, the global economy and transnational classes. The struggling discourses about who/what has been allocated responsibility for the protection of environmental refugees also meant that identities of the displaced be constructed in specific ways. While the UNHCR discourse constructed as voluntary migrants and predators, the EJF and EquityBD discourses portrayed them as victims. However, even though the EJF discourse constructed them as victims, their reliance on humanitarianism could also be interpreted as a way of giving the environmental refugee a predator like identity. These discourses on responsibilization and identity formation clashed with each other in the aim of achieving a hegemonic position in discussions and debates about the protection of environmental refugees.

Non-governmental organizations and multi-sited marine conservation science: A case study

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are now major players in the realm of environmental conservation. While many environmental NGOs started as national organizations focused around single-species protection, governmental advocacy, and preservation of wilderness, the largest now produce applied conservation science and work with national and international stakeholders to develop conservation solutions that work in tandem with local aspirations. Marine managed areas (MMAs) are increasingly being used as a tool to manage anthropogenic stressors on marine resources and protect marine biodiversity. However, the science of MMA is far from complete. Conservation International (CI) is concluding a 5 year, $12.5 million dollar Marine Management Area Science (MMAS) initiative. There are 45 scientific projects recently completed, with four main “nodes” of research and conservation work: Panama, Fiji, Brazil, and Belize. Research projects have included MMA ecological monitoring, socioeconomic monitoring, cultural roles monitoring, economic valuation studies, and others. MMAS has the goals of conducting marine management area research, building local capacity, and using the results of the research to promote marine conservation policy outcomes at project sites. How science is translated into policy action is a major area of interest for science and technology scholars (Cash and Clark 2001; Haas 2004; Jasanoff et al. 2002). For science to move policy there must be work across “boundaries” (Jasanoff 1987). Boundaries are defined as the “socially constructed and negotiated borders between science and policy, between disciplines, across nations, and across multiple levels” (Cash et al. 2001). Working across the science-policy boundary requires boundary organizations (Guston 1999) with accountability to both sides of the boundary, among other attributes. (Guston 1999; Clark et al. 2002). This paper provides a unique case study illustrating how there are clear advantages to collaborative science. Through the MMAS initiative, CI built accountability into both sides of the science-policy boundary primarily through having scientific projects fed through strong in-country partners and being folded into the work of ongoing conservation processes. This collaborative, boundary-spanning approach led to many advantages, including cost sharing, increased local responsiveness and input, better local capacity building, and laying a foundation for future conservation outcomes. As such, MMAS can provide strong lessons for other organizations planning to get involved in multi-site conservation science. (PDF contains 3 pages)

Faith-based Non-Governmental Organizations in the Public Square

This chapter has both a methodological and a substantive aim. First, I suggest, using the role and function of NGOs in religiously related legal disputes as a paradigm example, the distinction between institutional, doctrinal, and theoretical approaches to the study of the relationship between religion and law is sometimes unhelpful, creating a barrier preventing us from understanding the phenomenon that we are examining. Instead, I suggest, a more integrated understanding, drawing on each of these approaches and seeing how they relate to each other, may well be more illuminating. The second aim of this chapter is to suggest, in a preliminary way, that the phenomenon of faith-based organizations should be more integrated than in the past into doctrinal and theoretical debates in the area of law and religion, in particular the problem of how liberal society is to engage with organized religion where there is a fundamental dispute as to who represents that religion, or as to what the basic tenets of that religion are.

Why and how projects in organizations differ? The example of Portuguese profit and non-profit organizations

This research has as a goal to give an overview of what Project Management is in Portugal. The purpose is not to focus on a small picture, but to understand the broad concept and perception of Project Management in Portugal in two very important sectors: Profit- and Non-Profit Sector. Both Profit- and Non-Profit project managers have been interviewed, giving an insight of how different projects are in both sectors and why. This paper will be especially helpful comparing the Project Management maturity of Portugal to other countries regarding these two different point of views.

Does companionate love express itself unequally in different organizational forms (private companies, hybrid and non-governmental organizations)?

Although, the word “Love” in organizations is seen as a rare concept, but it has gained importance in management theoretical foundation. This study seeks to explore the companionate love in distinct of organizational forms (Private companies; Social organizations; NGO and IPSS) through interviews. The results propose that it is a tensional concept with a complex dynamic: tension of personal behavior, tension of professional behavior; tension of individual impact and tension of community impact. The love dynamic has common points to all organizations, but its expression depends on the specific form of the organization.

Same strategic HRM issues predict performance in both for-profit and non-profit organizations in a key knowledge-intensive industry

This paper examines the adoption of strategic human resource management (HRM) by for-profit and non-profit knowledge-intensive health services (HS) organisations in Australia. Survey data collected from senior executives is used to test the relationships between a strategic HRM model and firm performance. Path analysis found that, irrespective of whether for-profit or non-profit, adopting strategic HRM could increase organisational performance. Strategic HRM could be achieved through the cultivation of an external orientation to customers’ demands and an internal orientation highlighting commitment to employees. Public and non-profit organisations in the HS industry facing or undergoing health sector reform need to be aware of both of these orientations in order to adopt strategic HRM and improve their performance.