Examining the Extent and Coherence of Nonprofit Hybridization Toward the Market in a Post-corporatist Welfare State

Abstract

Despite widespread concerns about nonprofit organizations becoming “business-like” by hybridizing toward the market sphere, systematic knowledge about the extent and coherency to which this phenomenon finds traction beyond the liberal welfare context remains largely absent to date. Based on survey data ( N = 496), this study addresses this lacuna for the region of Flanders (Belgium), an emblematic case of a post-corporatist welfare state. We find that (a) business practices are on the rise yet not prominently present, and (b) the theorized conceptual coherence of this phenomenon corresponds with a more fragmented empirical reality. This raises the question to what extent the conception of nonprofit hybridization toward the market sphere as a “monolithic threat” to the distinctiveness of the nonprofit sphere is an empirical reality in a post-corporatist welfare context.

The Hybridization of Meaningful Nonprofit Work: An Exploratory Study of the Effects of Marketization on Nonprofit Managers’ Sense of Meaningfulness in Work

“…These findings can be viewed with both optimism and concern. On one hand, the findings confirm that viewing the market sphere as a "monolithic threat" to the nonprofit sector is unwarranted (Suykens et al, 2020). While neoliberal predilections for efficiency, productivity, and performance management, namely, enterprise culture were present in the conceptions and experiences of meaningful work described by participants, so too were the prosocial values that define meaningful nonprofit work.…”

“…Nonprofits are becoming increasingly marketized by adopting, in some measure, the logic and values associated with the neoliberal marketplace (Eikenberry & Kluver, 2004; Sandberg et al, 2020). While some have questioned the extent to which marketization has led nonprofits to become more “market-like” in their manner (e.g., Sanders, 2015; Suykens et al, 2020), research indicates that nonprofits are evolving their structure, goals, and rhetoric under market influences (see Maier et al, 2016).…”

Nonprofits as socially responsible actors: Neoliberalism, institutional structures, and empowerment in the United Nations Global Compact

“…Despite the conviction of the Global Compact’s architects that corporate social responsibility would evolve along the multiple regulatory approaches (Weiss, 2005a), the organizational responsibility movement as centered in international organizations like the UN would likely continue to focus on voluntary commitments that emulate free market processes, where organizations pick and choose between several voluntary options, rather than the centralized command structures (Kell, 2013). As corporations, public agencies, and nonprofit organizations are increasingly implicated in these responsibility concerns, there will not only be a blurring of boundaries between different organizational types (Bromley and Meyer, 2017; Suykens et al, 2020) but also an intertwining of their specific functions (Weiss, 2005a: 23). Thus, it may well be that corporations aid nonprofit organizations in addressing social and environmental issues that governments need help in addressing (Evans et al, 2005).…”

Quite promising yet marginal? A comparative study of social economy in the EU South

“…Reorienting towards market mechanisms has deeper implications for social enterprises, as it implies their further embeddedness within (and, thus, dependence upon) dominant circuits. In this process, which can be described by the term hybridization (Vezina & Ben Selma, 2017 ), they prioritize commercial outcomes over their social goals and values (Jenner, 2016 ; Suykens et al, 2020 ). As social enterprises start adopting businesslike practices, SE becomes a field where labor devaluation and precariousness are reproduced, and more so, become normalized.…”