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This paper systematically reviews the past four years of research on human resource management (HRM) in nonprofit organizations (NPOs) to better understand: (1) recent theoretical and empirical developments and where scholarship in the field is headed (i.e. trends); (2) what topics and findings are especially important to understanding how the thought and practice of nonprofit HRM differs from that in public and for-profit organizations (i.e. insights); and (3) what gaps exist in current knowledge and scholarship and some real-world, practice-driven developments in people management that illuminate promising future research directions (i.e. opportunities).

Sixty-seven peer-reviewed journal articles covering the period 2015–2018 were identified using a university library database search, as well as by-hand searches through every issue of 22 nonprofit and 36 human resources-related journals during the four-year period.

The findings highlight strong continued interest by scholars in a wide range of nonprofit HRM issues, coverage of these issues by a worldwide network of researchers who bring global perspectives and contexts to the study of nonprofit HRM, and rich theoretical and methodological diversity. Yet, compared with the universe of possible human resource topics and several leading-edge developments in organizations and societies that might affect the way people are managed in nonprofits, the paper uncovers gaps in the most recent knowledge base.

The paper creates a compilation of the most recent nonprofit human resource research to be used as a tool for scholars, students, and practitioners for many years to come.

This study aims to examine why cause‐related marketing (CRM) can develop, and how can the social system and enterprise link with nonprofit organization (NPO) to form a closed path to prompt the maximization for three parties' benefits, in order to provide a general framework to explore the mechanisms of power and action for CRM.

The logic deduction approach was used for an overview and conceptual paper based on research experience.

The paper stresses CRM should be a good marriage between a nonprofit and its sponsorship firm both organizations stand to benefit. Its mechanism of power is the result of the combined effect by the enterprise's push, NPO's pull and social system's supervision, and mechanism of action is under the social system's supervision, enterprise linked with NPO to form a closed path.

A major weakness is that the influences of CRM on the enterprise and the NPO are only explained qualitatively, there are short of some data to test the validity of theories above. Further, investigation into this construct in the context of CRM would be helpful in understanding what are the role and the impact of CRM on firm and NPO in this domain. The main implication is that, this study presents an example and direction of how the enterprise, NPO, and social system are able to maximize their economic and social benefits.

This study contributes to examine the inter mechanisms of CRM from the perspectives of enterprise and NPO. The findings of this study are useful to and provide managerial implications for administrators of enterprise, NPO and social system aiming to make optimal decisions under the dual driven of institutional rationality and economic rationality.

This chapter seeks to contribute to a better understanding of Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs) use of practices for the purpose of organizational sustainability by highlighting the need for conducive performance measures and standards attached to NPO funding sources.

A review of literature for the UK Non-profit organization sector and NPO performance measures. The review structures literature as it relates to the non-profit sector and their relation to societal impact of human social service (HSS) non-profit organizations, non-profit performance measures, and processes of knowledge sharing in application of organizational evaluation.

This chapter provides a review of gaps in the literature referring suitable performance measurement and assessments suitable for the unique culture and approaches to performance measures of non-profit organizations. Future research implications suggest research in order to comprehend processes and procedures of performance measures inclusive of knowledge sharing and the processes of how non-profit learn, share, and evaluate internal and external to the NPO sector.

The value of this chapter is relevant for the public, government, and corporations to support efficient and effective ways in appropriating funds and defining successful NPO’s for external funders to invest.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dynamics and evolution of trust in organizational cross alliances.

In alliances between corporations and nonprofit organizations, trust in decision-making is a dynamic process. Using the replicated dynamics model of evolutionary game theory, this paper provides a trust decision model and analyzes four scenarios under different parameters. A numerical simulation is developed to present an intuitive interpretation of the dynamic development of trust decisions and the effects of incentive and punishment mechanisms.

Under different parameters, bounded rationality and utilities result in different but stable evolutionary strategies; the initial probability of adopting a trust strategy leads directly to whether participants adopt the strategy when the system reaches stability after continued games; and incentive and punishment mechanisms can significantly reduce the initial probability of adopting a trust strategy where the system evolves to meet stable state needs.

The establishment of trust relationships is an important influence on the stable and coordinated development of an alliance. The proposed model can help the alliance build closer trust relationships and provide a theoretical basis for the design of the trust mechanism.

Incentive and punishment bound by some degree of trust are introduced to address the problems of trust decisions and their dynamics; the model created reflects the bounded rationality and utility of each game stage. Useful evolutionary stable strategies using different variables are proposed to address the decision-making problems of trust in cross alliances.

This paper analyses the extent to which public sector (PS) and non-profit (NP) organisations' reports and reporting processes adopt an IR framework as model of dialogical accountings and accountability (DAA) for dialogue with stakeholders.

The paper provides an overview of accountings and accountability in PS and NP organisations. The concept of dialogical communication with stakeholders is studied. The theoretical framework of DAA is supported by empirical investigation through the case studies of two organisations, one PS and one NP organisation. To contextualize findings from the case study, Estonian private schools' published management reports were analysed to explore integrated reporting (IR) elements. The paper ends with discussion and conclusions.

NP and PS aimed to improve their reporting practices. Reporting in the PS organisation were based on traditional accounting and accountability models which work in stable and non-competitive environment. IR, as a format for DAA, could bring added value to the PSO, but the mechanisms to make it work are missing. The NP organisations were already spontaneously practising some IR elements. After learning about IR, the NP organisation committed to IR principles and benefited from its guidelines. Implementing IR together with the concepts of dialogical communication, the organisations could create and benefit from better cooperation with their stakeholders both internally and externally.

The case study research does not allow for generalisation of the results, which are limited to the case organisations' context and based on their management's subjective opinions. The limitation of qualitative content analysis as a research method in current study, is its possible subjectivity. The limitation is represented by the fact that only one year's data was for analysis.

This paper can be useful to any PS or NP institution willing to enhance its public accountability and developing dialogue with stakeholders for creation and innovation. This study serves to inform organisations that are searching for ways to improve awareness of IR for communication and co-creation purposes.

This study could help in defining the framework for a larger scale IR-related study in finding trends in PS and NP organisations. The study is a platform for exploring the aspects of developing dialogue with different stakeholders of IR implementation and application process.

The conceptual novelty of the research lies in connecting IRF and dialogical communication concept. The focus is to understand how IR expedites dialogical communication in light of IR framework. In current paper, we observe the presence of IR elements in public sector and non-profit sector organisations' reports.

The evolution of the not‐for‐profit organisation sector in the Israeli economy is described, combining economic theory together with history and ideology to provide a multi‐dimensional explanation of this important phenomenon. Why some activities are performed by not‐for‐profit organisations instead of, or in addition to, for‐profit firms and government institutions is outlined, and explanations for the existence of NPOs in various fields of public service are offered.

Service researchers have been tasked with improving the well-being of consumers experiencing vulnerability. The current research aims to demonstrate how these consumers can experience empowerment through transformative service improvements to the traditional microfinance model.

To ground the research in a real-world setting with consumers experiencing vulnerability, the research team worked with a nonprofit microfinance organization offering loans to communities of Indigenous women entrepreneurs. The research team worked in six communities and conducted over 25 borrower interviews and 14 staff and volunteer interviews totaling 1,200 min of recorded content.

The present investigation of a unique approach to microfinance offers a new theoretical model, the service empowerment model (SEM), which illustrates how empowerment emanates from processes and outcomes at three distinct levels: micro, meso and macro. Recognizing that change occurs individually and also at familial and societal levels begins to challenge deeply rooted structural and cultural norms involved in the services ecosystem.

Originating from the microfinance service setting, the SEM can be explored, tested and implemented as a pilot program in a variety of service settings that involve transformative service initiatives (e.g. homelessness, refugees, etc.).

As society pursues solutions to the pressing problems of consumers experiencing vulnerability, the present research offers critical insights into how services should be designed.

The present research defines a new term, service empowerment, and creates a new theoretical model, the SEM, to aid in improving transformative service initiatives.

In a post-pandemic society, non-profit organisations (NPOs) have become vital. A safe environment for such organisations to function in is therefore important. In spite of efforts to safeguard this sector, rampant abuse exists. This paper aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the South African non-profit sector and its vulnerabilities to economic crime, specifically money laundering and terrorist financing.

Secondary sources such as legislation, case law, textbooks and peer-reviewed publications are used in identifying the vulnerabilities in the South African non-profit sector. Common denominators are identified from these sources to provide a basis for the highlighted vulnerabilities.

The South African non-profit sector is most vulnerable, leaving the sector susceptible to economic crimes. This is highlighted in the 2021 Financial Action Task Force Mutual Evaluation Report. Governance structures in the sector cannot protect it effectively and concomitant regulations have become inadequate. It is necessary for the South African Government and Parliament to review existing laws and regulations to ensure enhanced governance over these NPOs.

This paper contributes to a research gap on existing vulnerabilities within the South African non-profit sector relating to money laundering and terrorist financing. The paper provides a comprehensive layout of the South African non-profit sector, highlighting areas at risk of exploitation and identifying key vulnerabilities within the sector.

This paper aims to present findings from a study conducted with non-profit organizations (NPOs) in Canada and Australia, focusing on the use of tools and technologies for knowledge management (KM). NPOs of different sizes and operating in different sectors were studied in two large-scale national surveys. The paper is useful to both practitioners in NPOs for understanding tool use for KM activities and to scholars to further develop the KM-NPO domain.

Two nation-wide surveys were conducted with Canadian and Australian NPOs of different sizes (i.e. very small to large-sized organizations) and operating in different sectors (e.g. animal welfare, education and research, culture and arts). An analysis of responses explores the use of tools and technologies by NPOs. Respondents identified the tools and technologies they used from nine pre-determined themes (quantitative data) plus an additional category of “other tools” (qualitative data), which allowed for free text responses. The quantitative data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistical techniques and the qualitative data were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach.

Quantitative data analysis provides key findings including the popularity of physical, print documents across all NPO sizes and sectors. Statistical tests revealed, for example, there is no significant difference for the same-sized organizations in Canadian and Australian NPOs in the use of tools and technologies for KM activities. However, there were differences in the use of tools and technologies across different sizes of NPOs. The qualitative analysis revealed a number of additional tools and technologies and also provided contextual details about the nature of tool use. The paper provides specific examples of the types of tools and technologies NPOs use.

The paper has both practical and academic contributions, including areas for future research. The findings on the use of KM tools and technologies by NPOs contribute to the growing body of literature in the KM domain in general and also build the literature base for the understudied KM-NPO domain. NPOs will also find the paper useful in better understanding tools and technological implementation for KM activities. The study is unique not only in the content focus on KM for NPOs but also for the comparative study of activities in two countries.

The audit of development funds that flow between development not-for-profit organisations (DNPOs) is virtually free from effective external regulation. When programme DNPOs subcontract development work to field DNPOs, they are under current international audit rules free to specify audit frameworks that are limited to the accuracy of the books. Questions of the efficacy of the development work can thus be bracketed off. This paper aims to develop an argument for improving the regulation of cross-national audits of DNPOs.

Based on a review of the applicable audit regulation and ongoing debates of legitimacy and accountability, this paper articulates a series of problems that should be considered in the regulation of cross-national DNPO audits with reference to their specific legitimacy communities.

The special consideration that is due to the beneficiaries of development activities suggests that cross-national DNPO audits should be regulated not just with reference to general audit and accounting rules. Consideration should be given as well to some of the key context variables that potentially have a bearing on the likelihood that the audited development programmes meet the claims of the legitimacy community of development. These can include the level and depth of accountability afforded to the beneficiaries, potentially conflicting legitimacy relationships, the nature of admissible records for the audit and the provisions for programme funds to cover the overheads of field DNPOs.

The managerial implications of this paper concern the regulation, commissioning and conduct of cross-national DNPO audits. The authors propose a series of remedies to the scoping of field DNPO audits in a cross-national context.

Focusing on the functioning of cross-border NPO audits, this paper adds an important facet to ongoing discussions about the accountability of current regulation to represent the new interdependencies brought about by the forces of globalisation.