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

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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.