TY - JOUR
T1 - Reconciling Theory and Context in Comparative Nonprofit Research
AU - Zhao, Yi
AU - Galaskiewicz, Joseph
AU - Yoon, Eunsung
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge and thank those who commented on the paper and gave us references that proved to be very useful, including Jeremy Fiel, Brian Mayer, Marybel Perez, Robin Stryker, Anne Tsui, and the NVSQ editor and reviewers. Needless to say, any errors or oversights are the sole responsibility of the authors. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: ARNOVA-Asia paid for the accommodations of Joseph Galaskiewicz in Beijing for the June 6-7 meeting in 2017. Joseph Galaskiewicz paid for the summer salary of Yi Zhao from his university research funds in the summer of 2020.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021.
PY - 2022/2
Y1 - 2022/2
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - comparative case analysis
KW - multilevel modeling
KW - nonprofit sector
KW - theory development
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U2 - 10.1177/0899764021989445
DO - 10.1177/0899764021989445
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85100867458
VL - 51
SP - 5
EP - 30
JO - Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly
JF - Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly
SN - 0899-7640
IS - 1
ER -