Collaborative Research: Understanding the Creation and Mission Content of Non-Governmental Organizations

该项目将审查设在美国的非政府组织[NGO]的创建和使命内容。该项目将加强对企业家何时、为什么以及如何做出进入非营利性市场的战略决定，以及这些选择对社会福利结果的影响的基本理解。该项目将产生更广泛的影响，帮助现有和潜在的非营利组织领导人就何时以及如何创建新组织做出更好的决定。该项目的研究成果将通过有针对性的出版物、一个公共网站和一个讲习班进行传播。这项研究还将为教育和研究基础设施做出贡献。具体地说，它将开发关于美国非政府组织的数据集，供其他研究人员使用，包括来自几个非政府组织部门的大量定性材料。它将通过培训本科生和研究生以及产生课堂资源而产生重要的教育效益。该项目的目标是开发和测试关于非政府组织创建和使命内容变化的理论。它提出了这样的问题：非政府组织是何时创建的，为什么创建，目的是什么？尽管非政府组织在实践和理论上都很重要，但学者们很少系统地关注非政府组织是在什么时候成立的，以及创建非政府组织的目的。这个项目结合了多个学科的理论，以增强组织创建的知识，考察了一段时间内和不同部门的非政府组织。拟议的项目提供了两个关键进展。在方法上，该项目使用实验和定性方法来补充组织创造的传统观察和定量方法。从理论上讲，该项目审查非政府组织创建的使命内容和创新，建立在以前工作的基础上，以审查新的成果变量。拟议的研究涉及三种主要类型的原始数据收集和分析。首先，对编码的非政府组织任务说明进行统计分析，将能够研究大量现实世界的非政府组织之间的动态，从而提高外部有效性。其次，对非政府组织从业人员的调查将通过整合实验部分来增强研究的内部有效性。此外，它将使测试理论框架的个人层面的可观察影响成为可能。第三，对几个INGO部门演变的定性案例研究将探索部门发展和变化的过程。这一多管齐下的研究战略的指导原则是认识到，对组织的研究得益于多层次的分析和使用多种方法。贯穿研究设计的所有方面是致力于研究不同活动领域的非政府组织，以促进研究的普遍性。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will examine the creation and mission content of non-governmental organizations [NGOs] based in the United States. The project will enhance basic understanding about when, why, and how entrepreneurs make strategic decisions to enter the non-profit market, and the consequences of these choices for social welfare outcomes. The project will have a broader impact by assisting current and potential non-profit leaders to make better decisions regarding when and how to create new organizations. The research from this project will be disseminated through targeted publications, a public website, and a workshop. The study will also contribute to education and research infrastructure. Specifically, it will develop datasets about NGOs based in the United States that will be made available to other researchers, including extensive qualitative materials from several NGO sectors. It will have an important educational benefit by training undergraduate and graduate students and generating classroom resources.The goal of this project is to develop and test theory about variation in NGO creation and mission content. It asks questions such as: when and why are NGOs created, and for what purposes? Despite the practical and theoretical importance of non-governmental organizations, scholars have given little systematic attention to when NGOs are founded and the purposes for which NGOs are created. This project combines theory from multiple disciplines to enhance knowledge of organizational creation, examining NGOs over time and across different sectors. The proposed project offers two key advances. Methodologically, the project employs experimental and qualitative methods to complement traditional observational, quantitative approaches to organizational creation. Theoretically, the project examines mission content and innovation in NGO creation, building on previous work to examine new outcome variables. The proposed research involves three principal types of original data collection and analysis. First, a statistical analysis of coded NGO mission statements will enable the study of dynamics among a large number of real-world INGOs, promoting external validity. Second, a survey of NGO practitioners will enhance the study's internal validity by integrating an experimental component. Moreover, it will enable the testing of the individual-level observable implications of the theoretical framework. And third, qualitative case studies of the evolution of several INGO sectors will explore the processes by which sectors develop and change. This multi-pronged research strategy is guided by a recognition that the study of organizations benefits from analyses at multiple levels and using multiple methodologies. Cutting across all prongs of the research design is a commitment to studying NGOs in diverse sectors of activity to promote the study's generalizability.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.