Is the Third Sector an Emerging Economic Institution? Social Preferences Versus Poverty Traps

Abstract

Relying on social preference theory and on poverty trap literature, this article\ud suggests a richer and more nuanced role of the third sector as an institution\ud complementary to the state and to the market in an economy’s development\ud process. Social preferences are considered as the micro—fundaments of the third\ud sector in that this promotes activities, laws, and organizational forms coherent with\ud those preferences. The third sector contributes to overcoming poverty traps not\ud only by spreading behavior based on altruism and solidarity but also by promoting\ud investments in welfare services and human capital and by favoring the access of all\ud the agents to the various markets.\ud Keyword

Toward a Romanian NPOs Sustainability Model: Determinants of Sustainability

“…Explicit scope, community dedication SR_1 [94,95] Budget and financial transparency SR_2 [96][97][98] Decision making is not based on NPO equity SR_3 [94,99] Stakeholder involvement in financial decisions SR_4 [100] High number of volunteers SR_5 [73] Data analysis was performed using the SPSS statistical software. We used univariate and bivariate analysis methods and tested the validity and consistency of the model using statistical hypothesis testing and research.…”

“…In addition to mission completion, good financial performance has become more relevant to NPOs during the past decades [95,96]. Furthermore, commercialization of the non-profit sector has increased [97,98]. From this perspective, organizational survival becomes the prerequisite for mission accomplishment, and researchers have even suggested that survival is the ultimate criterion on which NPO success should be evaluated [99].…”

Benefits of Older Volunteering on Wellbeing: An International Comparison

“…Voluntary work provides a wide range of benefits to the volunteer but also to the social group, community, and society where this behavior takes place. It has been shown that the volunteers themselves can share in the positive effects of their actions (Taylor, 2004;Ronel, 2006;Amendola et al, 2011;Binder and Freytag, 2013). Given the positive influence of civil and community associational activities, policy-makers should promote the development and consolidation of high levels of social capital (Sabatini, 2008).…”

Sustainability Perceptions in Romanian Non-Profit Organizations: An Exploratory Study Using Success Factor Analysis

“…Coupled with an increased marketization of the non-profit sector [86], it makes some scholars consider survival as the ultimate criterion on which NPO success should be evaluated in terms of success and therefore sustainability [9].…”

“…All items were extracted from studies addressing non-profit sustainability [31,46,53,[84][85][86]100]. For the Small number of employees variable we used a previous study on Romanian non-profits [101], which allow us to consider that, if the NPO has less than 10 employees in the last year will receive a 0 on measurement scale and, conversely, 1 for the other instance.…”