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Through two experiments, this study assessed source and message effects of Instagram-based pro-veganism messages.

Experiment 1 (N = 294) examined effects of organization (brand vs nonprofit) and message types (egoistic vs altruistic) on consumer responses to Instagram-based pro-veganism content. Experiment 2 (N = 288) examined effects of source type (celebrity vs noncelebrity) and message valence (positive vs negative) on consumer responses to Instagram-based pro-veganism content.

Results demonstrated significant main effects of organization type, with consumers indicating more positive attitudes and higher credibility toward the brand. Significant main effects of message type were also found, with altruistic messages eliciting higher perceived information value than egoistic messages. Subjective norms had moderating effects on attitude toward the organization, while attitude toward veganism had moderating effects on perceived information value. Results also indicated significant main effects of message valence on perceived information value of pro-veganism Instagram posts and significant interaction effects of the two manipulated factors on intention to spread electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) about pro-veganism.

Implications for use of Instagram-based health marketing communication about veganism were discussed. Specifically, organizations looking to use social media to influence attitudes and behavioral intentions toward health issues should seek to reach their target audiences through selecting endorsers and messages that will optimally present the health issue in a relatable and engaging way.

Organizations are communicating with the public about their thoughts and behaviors relevant to the environment via social networking sites. The purpose of this paper is to explore for-profit and nonprofit organizations' Twitter messages to understand their environment-related messages and their influences on the publics' responses.

This study conducted a content analysis adopting four message classification systems: environmental message orientation, message specificity, message framing, and environmental issue. Guided by attribution theory, this study also explored how the organization's environmental messages influence social media (Twitter) user responses, likes, retweets, and replies.

The analysis showed that for-profits' messages tend to discuss their green products and manufacturing processes with specific numeric evidence, while nonprofits are disposed to describe a severely degraded environment. In addition, the study revealed that tweets yield a high number of likes and replies when the organizations are for-profits and the messages emphasize green products.

The findings of this study showed that the green message categorization systems are applicable to the social media context. But, this study focused on Twitter only. Future studies need to examine various social media platforms.

The study findings recommend communication practitioners use substantive green messages highlighting actual pro-environmental performances. Also, practitioners might need to make a linkage between the discussed environmental issue and the organization (e.g. a water issue by a wildlife-related nonprofit, an energy issue by a home appliance manufacturer, an air pollution issue by a bicycle company). In addition, regarding the message specificity, infographics can be present specific information that audiences can readily understand because it is described visually.

Scholars investigated environmental messages in advertising and cautioned that environmental messages that are not substantive or specific can cause audiences to perceive the messages as greenwashing. However, these previous studies focused on conventional media, and they have not been replicated in the age of social media. Thus, it is important to explore the current status of organizational environmental messages on social media.

Change in ownership among U.S. community hospitals has been frequent and, not surprisingly, remains an important issue for both researchers and public policy makers. In the past, investor-owned hospitals were long suspected of pursuing financial over other goals, culminating in several reviews that found few differences between for-profit and nonprofit forms (Gray, 1986; Sloan, 2000; Sloan, Picone, Taylor, & Chou, 2001). Nevertheless, continuing to the present day, several states prohibit investor-ownership of community hospitals. Conversions to investor-ownership are only one of six types of ownership change, however, with relatively less attention paid to the other types (e.g., for-profit to nonprofit, public to nonprofit). This study has two parts. We first review the literature on the various types of ownership conversion among community hospitals. This review includes the rate at which conversions occur over time, the relative frequency in conversions between specific ownership categories and the observed effects of conversion on hospital operations (e.g., strategic direction and decision-making processes) and performance (e.g., access, quality, and cost). Overall, we find that the impact of ownership conversion on the different measures is mixed, with slightly greater evidence for positive effects on hospital efficiency. As one explanation for these findings, we suggest that the impact of ownership conversion on hospital performance may be mediated by changes in the hospital's strategic content and process. Such a hypothesis has not been proposed or examined in the literature. To address this gap, we next study the role of strategic reorientation following hospital conversion in a field study. We conceptualize ownership conversion within a strategic adaptation framework, and then analyze the changes in strategy content and process across sixteen hospitals that have undergone ownership conversions from nonprofit to for-profit, public to for-profit, public to nonprofit, and for-profit to nonprofit. The field study findings delineate the strategic paths and processes implemented by new owners post-conversion. We find remarkable similarity in the content of strategies undertaken but differences in the process of strategic decision making associated with different types of ownership changes. We also find three main performance effects: hospitals change ownership for financial reasons, experience increases in revenues and capital investment post-conversion, and pursue labor force reductions post-conversion. Membership in a multi-hospital system, however, may be a major determinant of both strategy content and decision-making process that is confounded with ownership change. That is, ownership conversion may mask the impact of system membership on a hospital's strategic actions. These findings may explain the pattern of performance effects observed in the literature on ownership conversions.

This paper aims to demonstrate that Facebook likes affect outcomes in nonprofit settings. Specifically, Facebook likes influence affinity to nonprofits, which, in turn, affects fundraising outcomes.

The authors report three studies that establish that relationship. To examine social contagion, Study 1 – an auction field study – relies on selling artwork created by underprivileged youth. To isolate signaling, Study 2 manipulates the number of total Facebook likes on a page. To isolate commitment escalation, Study 3 manipulates whether a participant clicks a Facebook like.

The results show that Facebook likes increase willingness to contribute in nonprofit settings and that the process goes through affinity, as well as through Facebook impressions and bidding intensity. The total number of Facebook likes has a direct signaling effect and an indirect social contagion effect.

The effectiveness of the proposed mechanisms is limited to nonprofit settings and only applies to short-term effects.

Facebook likes serve as both a quality signal and a commitment mechanism. The magnitude of commitment escalation is larger, and the relationship is moderated by familiarity with the organization. Managers should target Facebook likes at those less familiar with the organization and should prioritize getting a potential donor to leave a like as a step leading to donation, in essence mapping a donor journey from prospective to active, where Facebook likes play an essential role in the journey. In a charity auction setting, the donor journey involves an additional step of bidder intensity.

The approach the authors study is shown effective in nonprofit settings but does not appear to extend to corporate social responsibility more broadly.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first investigation to map Facebook likes to a seller’s journey through signals and commitment, as well as the only investigation to map Facebook likes to charity auctions and show the effectiveness of this in the field.

In current economic systems, the role played by non-profit and voluntary organisations is relevant. Several studies analyse the development of these organisations and suggest reasons related to the dissemination of policies that first consider public intervention and then ‘the third way’ of the economy as a way to increase wealth and support economic development. In this context, it should be noted that:

• Modern non-profit organisations (NPOs) take the form of enterprises encouraging the development of capabilities to satisfy human needs in terms of production of goods and utilities.

• A systematic cooperation with the local context (i.e. enterprises and Public Administration) is becoming increasingly more important for the survival and development of NPOs.

• Excellent opportunities for economic and social growth and for mutual development can develop from this type of cooperation.

• Starting from this premise, the purpose of the research is to suggest some insight on the theme of cooperation between for-profit and non-profit world in the light of the thought of Church’s Social Doctrine, and in particular, of the Encyclical Letter of Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate – On Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth. In this sense, the contribution is a conceptual work; the study could improve with empirical research concerning the level of diffusion and the form of collaborations for-profit/non-profit in the Italian context.

Modern non-profit organisations (NPOs) take the form of enterprises encouraging the development of capabilities to satisfy human needs in terms of production of goods and utilities.

A systematic cooperation with the local context (i.e. enterprises and Public Administration) is becoming increasingly more important for the survival and development of NPOs.

Excellent opportunities for economic and social growth and for mutual development can develop from this type of cooperation.

Starting from this premise, the purpose of the research is to suggest some insight on the theme of cooperation between for-profit and non-profit world in the light of the thought of Church’s Social Doctrine, and in particular, of the Encyclical Letter of Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate – On Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth. In this sense, the contribution is a conceptual work; the study could improve with empirical research concerning the level of diffusion and the form of collaborations for-profit/non-profit in the Italian context.

From a methodological point of view, after a literature review on NPOs and corporate social responsibility, the chapter analyses reasons, strategies and tools of collaborations between non-profit and for-profit worlds (the role of Public Administration and hybrid organisation is excluded). Then, focus moves up on Church’s Social Doctrine and Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate with particular attention to the topic analysed in this chapter (collaboration for-profit/non-profit enterprises). The vision emerging from the Encyclical is that the dichotomy between for-profit and NPOs should be resolved by striving for the development of a ‘civil economy’ with the capacity to promote the overall development of the human being. The research highlights the importance of dissemination of initiatives promoted predominantly by NPOs, with the objective of stimulating and supporting the implementation of forms of structured collaboration; we are sure that a ‘connection point’ between for-profit and non-profit is now necessary.

Previous research has found that nonprofit organizations pay lower wages than do other organizations. This has been attributed to altruism on the part of workers who are willing to donate some of the value of their time to organizations that support causes in which they believe. This paper extends that analysis to the cost of fringe benefits. Do nonprofit organizations spend less on fringe benefits than do other organizations? Utilizing a data set containing information on wages and fringe benefits in the nonprofit sector we estimate a standard wage equation to test for such a relationship. We find that not only are nonprofit organizations spending less on fringe benefits than are other organizations, but that they are spending significantly less than would be predicted by the previous research on nonprofit wage differentials.

This large‐scale exploratory research explores the manner in which various organizational types view their social obligations in terms of the tradeoffs (or potential symbioses) between economic and non‐economic (social) goals. Historically, this issue has been researched only in the context of business firms. Given the increased scope and visibility of nonprofit organizations, it becomes particularly relevant to explore a broad range of organizational types. To proceed with this research, this study proposes a 5‐class typology describing the organizational spectrum from the fully for‐profit to the fully nonprofit organizations. This paper also contributes to the emerging empirical research stream in the area by undertaking a systematic assessment of the way in which all organizational types value their economic versus social orientations as gauged by several measures. Across the two top executive levels, a regular progression of statistically significant differences are found between the five organizational types with respect to their social and economic orientations. A by‐product of this research is that we reveal how the economic or social orientation of organizations can be systematically investigated by undertaking large‐scale empirical studies with appropriately designed research instruments.

The purpose of this paper is to consider whether those nonprofit organizations which exhibit more similar characteristics to market organizations regarding the percentage of paid employees with functions similar to the ones in market organizations in relationship with total workers have a different model of human resource management in relation to their CEO than those organizations which exhibit fewer similarities to market organizations.

The hypotheses proposed in this study have been tested using a sample of 1,999 Spanish nonprofit organizations.

The results show that the CEOs of nonprofit organizations with most similarity to for‐profit organizations will have a more formalized employment relationship and a higher level of education than the CEOs of nonprofits with least similarity to for‐profit organizations.

This paper has several limitations from the heterogeneity of the sample to the fact that the conducted study is a cross‐sectional study of the current situation.

The practical implications of this paper imply that nonprofit organizations which are evolving, in terms of their workforce, towards a high percentage of paid employees or those who are already in this position will have to adapt to the way in which for‐profit organizations operate if they wish to achieve levels of effectiveness and efficiency to make them competitive in this sector.

One of the reasons for proposing this work is the small number of empirical studies trying to address systematically the relationship between the CEO and the characteristics of nonprofit organizations.

Marketing persuasive materials are often displayed on a curved surface (e.g. a curved hallway). This study aims to investigate how the curvature (concave vs convex) of a display surface influences the persuasion of the marketing appeals presented on it.

The conceptual framework was tested in a field experiment, a lab experiment and two online experiments on Amazon Mechanical Turk. Analyses of variance and mediation analysis were used to test the hypotheses.

This research demonstrates that a concave (vs convex) display surface may increase persuasion for marketing materials with social appeals. This occurs because a concave surface enhances consumers’ perception of self–other overlap, which is matched with the content of the social appeal presented on it, thereby enhancing the appeal’s persuasiveness. It further identifies the appeal content as an important moderator of the effect; a convex (vs concave) display would enhance persuasion when the marketing materials contain personal appeals.

Future research could investigate how a time delay (e.g. hours, days) and the curvature of a display board or wall would play a role in the effect of display curvature.

The findings offer a novel, simple and cost-effective approach to enhance persuasion for both nonprofit and for-profit marketing materials.

This research contributes to the persuasion literature by investigating the impact of one ubiquitous but overlooked aspect of the message setting (i.e. the curvature of the message’s display surface) on persuasion while holding the message source and content constant. It also advances knowledge on consumer shape perception by examining an underexplored shape (i.e. the curved shape of a display surface) that is nondiagnostic in message persuasion.

The purpose of this paper is to adapt concepts from resiliency theory to understand the conditions under which social enterprises may remain true to form and purpose or are likely to change their character. This leads us to consider issues of governance, economic incentives associated with different organizational forms of social enterprise and the effects of the financial environment, the role of organizational slack and the influence of organizational leadership on the dynamics of social enterprises. Three case studies of organizations in the USA are analyzed to illustrate the application of resiliency theory to the stability of social enterprises. The fact that all forms of social enterprise must reconcile the tensions of social purpose and market raises important questions about the dynamics of these enterprises.

Theory and case study analysis.

Governance, financial incentive structure, organizational slack and leadership influence the stability of social enterprises.

First application of resiliency theory to the analysis of social enterprise stability.