As a result of the increasing adoption of private sector firms' values and concepts, nonprofit organizations (NPOs) are becoming more and more aware of intangible assets' importance for achieving competitive advantages. Even though reputation can be considered an organization's central intangible asset, there is still no appropriate measurement approach for reputation in this context. In this paper, we identify the dimensions of NPO reputation and develop indices to measure these components. We develop a model by means of a qualitative inquiry and a quantitative study using a large-scale sample from the German general public. We find support for a two-dimensional measurement approach comprising an affective and cognitive component as well as four antecedent constructs (''quality,'' ''performance,'' ''organizational social responsibility (OSR),'' and ''attractiveness''). The results of a second quantitative study in which we examine NPO reputation's relationship with important outcome variables, such as willingness to donate or work as an honorary member, provide support for the measurement approach's stability as well as criterion validity. Furthermore, the results reveal the affective dimension's importance regarding positively influencing donor behavior.
IntroductionNon-profit organizations (NPOs) are increasingly operating in a competitive environment that is characterized by stronger needs in their target communities, and a generally tighter funding environment with growing competition for donors and grants (Weerawardena and Mort, 2008). This specifically holds for the current recession, which is strongly affecting NPO income and volunteer support (Ainsworth, 2008). In this context, many NPOs have adopted more commercial practices and values to improve their strategic performance, particularly competitive positioning for donor appeal, staff retention as well as service strategy and delivery (Weisbrod, 1998;Goerke, 2003;Hume and Hume, 2008). This trend towards market orientation (Roper and Cheney, 2005;Kerlin, 2006;Dolnicar et al., 2008) has been accompanied by increasing concerns regarding the effective management of an NPO's intangible assets (Venable et al., 2005). Assets that are intangible by nature can -from a resource-based view -be a strategic success factor for organizations, since these assets cannot be easily imitated by competing organizations (e.g., Barney, 1991). Consequently, NPO managers are becoming progressively more aware of marketing concepts such as organizational identity (Cornelissen et al., 2007), image (Grounds and Harkness, 1998), and brand personality (Venable et al., 2005; Sargeant et al., 2008a, b). In particular, an organization's reputation, generally understood as its overall evaluation by its various stakeholders (Fombrun, 1996), has been identified as its most important intangible asset (Hunt and Morgan, 1995). This is due to reputation capturing the effects that brands and images have on stakeholders' evaluation of an organization (Van Riel and Fombrun, 2007). In this regard...