Examining the influence of organizational characteristics on nonprofit commercialization

• Published date: 01 December 2019
• Author: Ben Suykens,Bram Verschuere,Filip De Rynck
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nml.21384
• Date: 01 December 2019

RESEARCH NOTE

Examining the influence of organizational

characteristics on nonprofit commercialization

Ben Suykens | Filip De Rynck | Bram Verschuere

Faculty of Economics and Business

Administration, Department of Public

Governance and Management, Ghent

University, Ghent, Belgium

Correspondence

Ben Suykens, Faculty of Economics and

Business Administration, Department of

Public Governance and Management, Ghent

University, Henleykaai 84 (Campus

Mercator), 9000, Ghent, Belgium.

Email: ben.suykens@ugent.be

Abstract

A growing body of literature discusses the (dis)advantages

of nonprofit organizations becoming commercial by

engaging in the sale of organizational services and prod-

ucts. However, when explaining this phenomenon,

scholars tend to focus on resource uncertainty, thereby dis-

regarding the organizational ability to commercialize.

Complementing resource dependency theory with insights

from contingency theory, this study presents arguments

drawn from a comparative case study of six sociocultural

nonprofits in Belgium. We find that, when resource uncer-

tainty is similar, organizational differences in terms of

commercial income can be explained by differences in

(a) organizational origins, (b) professional capacity, and

(c) types of tasks. We conclude that organizational charac-

teristics can either enable or disable the ability of non-

profits to commercialize and consequently their ability to

self-sustain in an increasing challenging resource

environment.

KEYWORDS

commercialization, contingency theory, nonprofit organization,

resource dependency theory

1|INTRODUCTION

Over the past few decades, organizational hybridization has become a well-debated topic in nonprofit

studies (Billis, 2010; Brandsen, van de Donk, & Putters, 2005; Skelcher & Smith, 2015). A key

observation within this debate relates to nonprofit organizations (NPOs) “becoming business-like”

by increasingly developing commercial activities (Adams & Perlmutter, 1991; Maier, Meyer, &

Received: 21 March 2018 Revised: 28 June 2019 Accepted: 2 July 2019

DOI: 10.1002/nml.21384

Nonprofit Management and Leadership. 2019;30:339–351. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/nml © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 339