Nonprofit entrepreneurial orientation: A systematic literature review and conceptual framework

• Published date: 01 June 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nml.21400
• Author: Fabrício M. Lacerda,Henrique M. R. Freitas,Cristina D. P. Martens
• Date: 01 June 2020

RESEARCH NOTE

Nonprofit entrepreneurial orientation:

A systematic literature review and

conceptual framework

Fabrício M. Lacerda | Cristina D. P. Martens |

Henrique M. R. Freitas

Business Administration, Universidade

Nove de Julho, S~

ao Paulo, Brazil

Correspondence

Fabrício M. Lacerda, Universidade Nove

de Julho, Rua Deputado Salvador

Julianelli, s/n –1andar, Barra Funda,

01156-080 S~

ao Paulo, Brazil.

Email: fabriciomlacerda@gmail.com

Funding information

CAPES—Coordination for Improvement

of Higher Education Personnel; CNPq—

National Council for Scientific and

Technological Development

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to propose a set of factors

that characterize the manifestation of entrepreneurial

orientation (EO) in nonprofit organizations (NPOs),

and we performed a systematic review of the literature.

Initially, 17 studies were identified in different data-

bases, and after a full reading of the documents that

met the objective of this study, we selected and qualita-

tively analyzed 14 theoretical and empirical studies

about EO in the nonprofit context. The studies analyzed

allowed us to understand the characteristics of organiza-

tional entrepreneurship in NPOs, through the dimensions

of innovativeness, proactivity, risk-taking, autonomy, and

competitive aggressiveness, in addition to the reciprocity

dimension, which emerged from the literature. By adding

reciprocity as the sixth dimension of the EO construct, it

was possible to group a set factors related to each dimen-

sion which, after being refined, supported the proposition

of a conceptual framework for an empirical analysis of

entrepreneurial behavior in different contexts of NPOs.

This study contributes to the systematization of factors

that configure the manifestation of EO in the nonprofit

sector, by proposing a conceptual framework entailing six

dimensions of EO and propositions for future studies.

Received: 12 December 2017 Revised: 13 November 2019 Accepted: 5 December 2019

DOI: 10.1002/nml.21400

Nonprofit Management and Leadership. 2020;30:677–692. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/nml © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 677

KEYWORDS

entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurship, nonprofit

organizations, systematic review

1|INTRODUCTION

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) of different sizes that seek to serve specific goals, mainly those

that are socially oriented (Kuratko, Morris, & Covin, 2011a), have been growing rapidly in most

societies. These organizations are constantly evolving (Andersson, 2017) and also have distinct

peculiarities and characteristics, representing a unique challenge for the concept of entrepre-

neurship (Kuratko et al., 2011a), insofar as in order to achieve social success, NPOs need busi-

ness models to obtain financial sustainability and the expected social impact (Margiono,

Zolin, & Chang, 2017).

As a phenomenon, entrepreneurship can occur in different contexts, such as startups; small-

, medium-, and large-scale organizations; public institutions; and NPOs (Kuratko, Morris, &

Covin, 2011b). The field of study of entrepreneurship in the nonprofit context has shown

growth and relevance (Helm & Anderson, 2010), which motivates the development of new stud-

ies (Andersson, 2017; Martens, Lacerda, Belfort, & Freitas, 2016).

The research about entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in the context of NPOs has begun

to gain ground in the literature (Lacerda, Belfort, & Martens, 2015; Morris, Coombes,

Schindehutte, & Allen, 2007; Voss, Voss, & Moorman, 2005), adopting a variety of dimen-

sions to characterize the entrepreneurial process (Lumpkin, Moss, Gras, Kato, & Amezcua,

2013). The dimensions of innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking have received more

attention from researchers (Helm & Anderson, 2010; Hu & Pang, 2013; Kuratko et al.,

2011a; Morris, Webb, & Franklin, 2011), compared with the dimensions of competitive

aggressiveness and autonomy (Lumpkin et al., 2013; Pearce II, Fritz, & Davis, 2010; Voss

et al., 2005). However, considering that competitive aggressiveness and autonomy can be

affected by the characteristics of social context, new studies are suggested (Lumpkin et al.,

2013). Helm and Anderson (2010) corroborate that there are other behaviors that could

broaden the conceptualization of entrepreneurship orientation in NPOs, in addition to inno-

vativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking.

Studies about EO in the context of NPOs have rarely adapted EO scales to reflect differences

in how entrepreneurship is manifested in different contexts (Hu & Pang, 2013; Lumpkin et al.,

2013; Morris et al., 2011; Schmidt, Baumgarth, Wiedmann, & Lückenbach, 2015). An organiza-

tion's mission can differentiate social entrepreneurs from commercial ones—for-profit or not

(Dacin, Dacin, & Matear, 2010; Lumpkin et al., 2013)—as well as their operational characteris-

tics (Mort, Weerawardena, & Carnegie, 2003), which reflect the need for studies about entrepre-

neurship considering different contexts. As an example, studies have suggested that aspects of

reciprocity are common among NPOs, and deserve to be analyzed as an entrepreneurial behav-

ior of these organizations (Lurtz & Kreutzer, 2016; Schmidt et al., 2015).

Efforts should be directed to consolidate the various factors present in the literature, which

characterize the manifestation of EO in the dimensions of innovativeness, proactiveness, risk-

taking, autonomy, and competitive aggressiveness in nonprofit contexts (Lumpkin et al., 2013;

Morris et al., 2011). Instead of creating new models or generating new theories, a conventional

678 M. LACERDA ET AL.