Corporate Social Responsibility, strategy, strategization, volunteerism,

This article explores the concept of competition as perceived by the nonprofit organization (NPO). Based on a series of case studies, the article examines the NPO’s response to competitive analysis within a strategic planning process. The findings suggest that despite behaving competitively, both for funding and in the marketplace, the NPO’s direct, mindful encounter with a distinctly market orientation engenders a reinterpretation of the concept of competition, aligning it with a nonprofit, value-centric mindset. In parallel, the imposition of competitive demands on the NPO may trigger a counterreaction in which the nonprofit launches a reexamination of its organizational identity. This process, in which the NPO may question the justification of its very existence, can generate significant emotional turmoil. The case study findings suggest that the outcome of this process may be the reinforcement and amplification of the organization’s social orientation.

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Emergent structural approaches to institutional complexity tend to inhibit the role of agency in addressing logic multiplicity scenarios. Prior studies of logic multiplicity have documented a diverse set of outcomes, ranging from domination through hybridization, and characterized by various levels of conflict. A new stream of research has emerged that seeks to explain this heterogeneity through the structural components of complexity. These studies tend to minimize the role of agency in institutional complexity scenarios, positing that outcome diversity, and the organization’s ability to exert agency, can be accounted for by the interaction of exogenously determined parameters, such as centrality, compatibility, prioritization, and jurisdictional overlap. This article revisits the role of agency in these models, suggesting that agency is not only framed by, but may itself shape, structure. The article draws on a comparative case study in five Israeli nonprofit organizations, focusing on the introduction of the business logic through a strategic planning process, and the challenge that this represents for the legacy social logic. The case studies demonstrate that organizations regularly use a set of distinctive mechanisms to manipulate the structural components of complexity, and, in so doing, agentically regulate logic multiplicity outcomes.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine the encounter between the voluntary nonprofit organization (VNPO) and the strategic process in order to study how these organizations may harness strategic processes in a way that somehow does not threaten their cultures and social mission. Design/methodology/approach -The paper adopts an exploratory case study approach. Findings -The case study identifies a set of complex, multi-faceted behaviors that serve a dual role, functioning simultaneously as both inhibitors and enablers of the strategic process. As a framework for future research, the paper proposes a two-dimensional scheme which models the scope and mode of organizational behavior in a strategic process. The case study indicates that VNPOs may tend to adopt what is classified as a "sectional-organic" pattern of response. This pattern of response balances the organization's needs for continuity and change, enabling the execution of the process in a manner compatible with the specific organizational characteristics of the VNPO. Originality/value -Previous studies of strategic processes in the VNPO have reported resistance and partial, stunted processes, stemming from the organization's need to protect its mission-oriented identity from the threats posed by a strategic process. However, the results of this case study, in which the subject organization managed to successfully develop an effective strategic plan, suggest that the behavior pattern of the VNPO in a strategic process may not be strictly defensive.