The role of civil society organisations in different nonprofit regimes: Evidence from Austria and the Czech Republic

The Multi-Functionality of Professional and Business Associations in a Transitional Context: Empirical Evidence from Russia

“…Since nonprofit studies cut across the confines of a single discipline, there are a number of difficulties that researchers face examining functions performed by NPOs. Firstly, due to a lack of common understanding of the term 'function', the task of comparative empirical analysis of nonprofit's functions, as Neumayr et al (2009) pointed out, becomes quite challenging. The only available definition of NPOs' functions to our knowledge has been given by Anheier (2005, 174), which says that "by function we mean the normal tasks or roles that nonprofit organizations can be expected to perform".…”

“…The first one adopts a rather narrow single perspective, such as that of foundations (Prewitt 1999), or unfolds within a particular national context, predominantly that of the USA (Land 2001;Frumkin 2005). Adherents of the second approach employ multiple perspectives, such as in the case of democratization and peace-building (Paffenholz and Spurk 2006), or place their studies in cross-national settings (Salamon, Hems, and Chinnock 2000;Neumayr et al 2009), thus enabling comparative analysis. Finally, based on different identified functions that NPOs fulfill, Neumayr et al (2009) came to the conclusion that among the roles assigned to NPOs, the most prominent one belongs to the service delivery function, followed by the advocacy and community building functions.…”

“…Adherents of the second approach employ multiple perspectives, such as in the case of democratization and peace-building (Paffenholz and Spurk 2006), or place their studies in cross-national settings (Salamon, Hems, and Chinnock 2000;Neumayr et al 2009), thus enabling comparative analysis. Finally, based on different identified functions that NPOs fulfill, Neumayr et al (2009) came to the conclusion that among the roles assigned to NPOs, the most prominent one belongs to the service delivery function, followed by the advocacy and community building functions. It is clear that the extent, to which NPOs fulfill any one of the identified functions, as well as the composition of the functions performed simultaneously, will vary depending on the national context or type of NPO.…”

“…Similar to any nonprofit organization operating in a pluralistic democratic society, associations in transitional context are expected to perform a certain set of functions. The existing strand of the non-profit literature provides a variety of different approaches to classifying functions of nonpofit organizations (Warren 2001;Salamon, Hems, and Chinnock 2000;Frumkin 2005;Neumayr et al 2009). The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically, whether the multifunctional nature of associations (Zimmer 2007) holds true for different types of associations operating in a country transitioning to democracy, market economy and civil society (Yakovlev et al 2010).…”

“…The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically, whether the multifunctional nature of associations (Zimmer 2007) holds true for different types of associations operating in a country transitioning to democracy, market economy and civil society (Yakovlev et al 2010). Therefore we refer to an integrated theoretical framework of functions of NPOs that distinguishes between service delivery, advocacy and community building functions (Neumayr et al 2009) and apply it on the organizational micro-level. This theoretical framework allows us to use an analytical toolbox of multiple functions simultaneously performed by a single association.…”