Research trends in nonprofit graduate studies in China: An inside perspective

• Published date: 01 September 2020
• Author: Fei You,Li Yang
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nml.21427
• Date: 01 September 2020

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Research trends in nonprofit graduate studies

in China: An inside perspective

Li Yang

1

| Fei You

2

1

China Academy of Social Governance/

School of Sociology/Center for

International NGOs and Foundations,

Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

2

Center for International NGOs and

Foundations, Beijing Normal University,

Beijing, China

Correspondence

Fei You, Center for International NGOs

and Foundations, Beijing Normal

University, 19 Xinjiekou Wai Street,

Beijing 100875, China.

Email: youfei11@sina.com

Funding information

The National Social Science Fund of

China, Grant/Award Number: 15BGJ002

Abstract

This paper explores the growt h of the academic study

of nonprofit management and or ganizations in China

by examining theses and dissert ations written in China

between 2000 and 2018. Usi ng a keyword search, we

collect and review 5,346 abs tracts available in the

China National Knowledge In frastructure Thesis and

Dissertation database. T he number of these theses and

dissertations accelerate d between 2000 and 2015 and

slowed thereafter. Most the ses and dissertations focus

on the external context of nonp rofit organizations

(78%) and fewer on nonprofi t management per se

(22%). Thematic analysis reveals several broad subj ects

of study including organiza tional development, the

character of the external env ironment and internal

operations, financial and othe r resource support, and

organizational performanc e. Trends across the 19-year

study period relating to nati onal regions of origin, dis-

cipline, and theme are also explored . The development

of nonprofit studies in Chi na in some ways resembles

the growth of this field in the United Stat es and other

western countries in past de cades, but with distinct

Chinese historical, socioc ultural, and geographical

characteristics.

KEYWORDS

China, non-governmental organizations, nonprofits/nonprofit

organizations, social organizations (shehuizuzhi), theses/

dissertations

Received: 7 November 2018 Revised: 18 May 2020 Accepted: 19 May 2020

DOI: 10.1002/nml.21427

Nonprofit Management and Leadership. 2020;31:175–197. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/nml © 2020 WileyPeriodicals LLC 175

1|INTRODUCTION

Reflecting the global associational revolution (Harris et al., 2016; Salamon, 1994; Smith, 2016)

and significant growth and change in the nonprofit sector worldwide (Almog-Bar & Young,

2016; Casey, 2016; Smith, 2016), interdisciplinary nonprofit research has become an established

and growing academic field in the universities of Europe and North America since the late

1980s. Shier and Handy's (2014) analysis of master's theses and doctoral dissertations between

1986 and 2010 documented this trend for nonprofit graduate studies in the English-written con-

text. China also features a growing civil society (Smith & Zhao, 2016). From the late 1990s,

China's registered nonprofit organizations (social organizations or shehuizuzhi in Chinese)

grew dramatically (Ministry of Civil Affairs, 1994–2018; Figure 1), and substantial numbers of

grassroots NPOs have also emerged although there are no statistics to track them (Deng, 2010;

Smith & Zhao, 2016; Spires, 2011; Spires, Tao, & Chan, 2014; Zhou, 2016). China's NPOs are

gradually receiving scholarly attention in the domestic and international nonprofit, philan-

thropic, and civil society spheres (Deng, 2010; Grønbjerg, Liu, & Pollak, 2010; Hou & Liu, 2018;

Lyons & Hasan, 2002; Smith, 2014; Smith & Zhao, 2016; Spires, 2011; Spires et al., 2014;

Zhang & Guo, 2017; Zhou, 2016), which begs the question of whether a similar trend exists in

Chinese master's theses and doctoral dissertations as Shier and Handy found in English-

speaking countries.

Nonprofit graduate-level studies constitute a wide-angle lens through which to view non-

profit management research and practice, as this field embraces a spectrum of nuances and

facets of nonprofit organizations and of the sector as a whole (Shier & Handy, 2014). Research

reviews in English or Chinese on China nonprofit organizations and related disciplines have

been published (Chen & Liu, 2015; Hou & Liu, 2018; Smith & Zhao, 2016), but to date, there

has been no literature specifically focused on nonprofit graduate-level studies. To examine the

extent to which this graduate-level research has been able to illuminate central issues in the

management of nonprofit organizations in China, such as governance, leadership, resources,

performance, capacity, adaptation, and strategy (Kaplan, 2001; Seaman & Young, 2018;

Shumate, Cooper, Pilny, & Pena-y-lillo, 2017; Young, 1993, 1997, 2017), and to study the social

0

100000

200000

300000

400000

500000

600000

700000

800000

900000

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

snoitazinagrOtiforpnoNforebumN

Year

FIGURE 1 The development of registered nonprofit organizations in China between 1994 and 2018 (Source:

Social Service Development Statistics Report [1994–2018] by Ministry of Civil Affairs, China)

176 YANG AND YOU