Reconciling Theory and Context in Comparative Nonprofit Research

Abstract

The article reviews a family of multilevel models that can be used to build general theories of the nonprofit sector that are still sensitive to variations in context. The comparative study of the nonprofit (or nongovernmental) sector presents formidable challenges to social scientists who are attempting to advance theory on the sector. Ostensibly, the goal is to model and test theories that are generalizable. Yet, as scholars study topics such as volunteerism, donations, governance, management, advocacy, accountability, and the like in different political, economic, and cultural contexts, they often find different patterns across cases. After reviewing the issues and introducing the idea that time (or more specifically events) can be thought of as context as well, we present an analytical approach for doing comparative research using the framework of hierarchical linear modeling.

The Promise and Perils of Comparing Nonprofit Data Across Borders

“…This useful approach has allowed comparative work to move forward by partially addressing historical-institutional factors, while avoiding becoming bogged in the narrative details of each context. A recent variation on this approach is proposed by Zhao et al (2022), who recommend hierarchical linear modeling as the underlying methodological framework rather than clustering across attributes.…”