Avner Ben-ner

The Study of Nonprofit Enterprise: Theories and Approaches - Nonprofit and Civil Society Studies Avner Ben-ner Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2003 edition

Marc Notes: Includes bibl. ref. & index; Avail. in cloth. Table of Contents: I. Introduction.- 1 The Theory of Nonprofit Organizations Revisited.- 2 The Economics of the Third Sector: Toward a More Comprehensive Approach.- II. The Major Theories.- Public Good Theories.- 3 Public Good Theories of the Nonprofit Sector: Weisbrod Revisited.- 4 The Public Goods Theory Revisited: Comments on Kingma s Revisitation of Weisbrod.- Trust-Related Theories.- 5 Trust, Repute, and the Role of Nonprofit Enterprise.- 6 The Role of Trust in Nonprofit Enterprise.- Stakeholder Theories.- 7 Stakeholder Theories of the Nonprofit Sector: One Cut at the Economic Literature.- Entrepreneurship Theories.- 8 Entrepreneurship in Nonprofit Organizations: Its Role in Theory and in the Real World Nonprofit Sector.- 9 Entrepreneurs, Managers, and the Nonprofit Enterprise.- Voluntary Failure and Institutional Theories.- 10 Voluntary Failure Theory and Nonprofit-Government Partnership.- 11 Voluntary Failure Theory Correctly Viewed.- 12 State, Subject, Space: Silences in Institutionalist Theories of Nonprofit-Government Relations.- Organizational Theory and Behavior.- 13 The Behavior of Organizations.- 14 Are Nonprofit Organizations Different?.- III. Comparisons and Implications.- 15 Dimensions of the Nonprofit Sector: A Comparative Perspectives of Structure and Change.- 16 Economic Theories of Nonprofit Organizations: An Evaluation.- 17 An Ecological Perspective on NonProfit Research."Publisher Marketing: This volume addresses the need to revisit the very economic theories that in the past two decades have contributed so much to the development of a concentrated research agenda on nonprofit organizations. Long neglected as a topic of theorizing and empirical investigation by mainstream economics in particular, these initial theories of nonprofit organizations, introduced by Burton Weisbrod (see Chapter 3 by Kingma and Chapter 4 by Slivinsky) and Henry Hansmann (see Chapter 5 by Ortmann and Schlesinger and Chapter 6 by Hansmann) and others in the late 1970sand early 1980s, continue to shape theoretical and conceptual efforts. Importantly, their influence extends beyond economics and informs sociological and political science approaches to the set of organizations and institutions located between the market firm and the state agency as well (see Chapter 10 by Wolpert, Chapter 11 by Salamon, and Chapter 12 by Wolch; also Anheier & Ben-Ner, 1997; DiMaggio & Anheier, 1990). While the theoretical map of nonprofit research has expanded beyond these early attempts and now includes several other major theories such as stakeholder approaches (Chapter I by Ben-Ner and Gui, and Chapter 7 by Krashinsky), supply-side or entrepreneurial theories (Chapter 8 by Badelt and Chapter 9 by Young), institutional theories (Chapter 17 by DiMaggio), and comparative approaches (Chapter 15 by Anheier; see also Salamon & Anheier, 1998), we nonethelesssuggest that it is time to takestockand reexamine some of the very basics from which these economic theories operate. This is the main purpose ofthe book.

Contributor Bio:  Ben-Ner, Avner Ben-Ner-University of MinnesotaContributor Bio:  Anheier, Helmut K, Professor Helmut K. Anheier (PhD, Yale) is Dean and Professor of Sociology at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. He holds a chair of Sociology at Heidelberg University and serves as Academic Director of the Center for Social Investment. From 2001 to 2009, he was Professor of Public Policy and Social Welfare at UCLA's School of Public Affairs and Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics. Professor Anheier founded and directed the Centre for Civil Society at LSE and the Center for Civil Society at UCLA. Before embarking on an academic career, he served as social affairs officer to the United Nations. He is currently researching the nexus between globalisation, civil society, and culture and is interested in policy analysis and methodological questions.