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In this chapter, we provide a map of civil society in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). We summarize the country reports published in this volume and complement them with analyses from other datasets, e.g. the European Values Study (EVS) and an expert survey which was conducted for the purpose of this study. We apply these sources to cluster the 16 CEE countries under investigation into four distinct country groups: a) the Visegrád group, which consists of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary, b) Slovenia and Croatia, c) Bulgaria and Romania, and finally d) the non-EU-countries Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Albania, and Moldova. Austria serves as a reference country for comparing CEE civil society with a traditional Western European civil society. Historical trajectories, economic data and an institutional analysis all confirm this clustering, and we describe and analyze the country groups using these categories. Even though the groups are diverse, some similarities become obvious, such as the important role of the European Union and the accession process in shaping the institutional framework. Analyses also reveal distinct features of civil society within the four country groups, such as a particularly high level of donor dependency in the non-EU country group and a low level of institutional trust in Bulgaria and Romania. Finally, we discuss trends and future developments. Despite recent challenges, including the withdrawal of foreign donors and political tensions in some countries, the outlook we provide for this dynamic region remains largely optimistic.

In the literature it is generally assumed that activities of voluntary membership based associations operating in stable institutional environments are multi-faceted, contributing simultaneously to societal, economic and political spheres. This article, drawing on the concept of functions of non-profit organizations investigates, whether the multi-functional character of associations holds true in the context of transitional Russia. The paper examines the relative importance of the advocacy, community building and service delivery functions, fulfilled by different types of associations. The original empirical data from exploratory interviews with 15 leading experts on associational activities was triangulated by a confirmatory survey of 215 associations across Russia. The results confirm that the absolute majority of the examined associations are multifunctional. Advocacy is considered to be the most important function for all types of associations. The findings suggest that business associations and intermediary unions are more active in policy advocacy directed toward the government, while liberal professional societies are more engaged in public advocacy addressing society at large. This study highlights importance of domestic associations for countries in transition as an institutional infrastructure of organized civil society, democratic development and market economy.

In this article we test whether reasons to quit volunteering can be structured as the commonly used six functional motives to volunteer of Clary et al. (1998). We conjecture that owing to volunteer involvement in an organization, additional contextual factors influence the choice to stop volunteering for that organization. Based on a literature review and a qualitative exploratory analysis, we present items respectively measuring motives to volunteer among active volunteers and reasons to quit among former volunteers in the context of the Scouts and Guides Organization in Flanders (Belgium). We test content-wise symmetry based on expert-rater agreement, while structural symmetry is tested based on factor analyses. Results show that no symmetry can be found. However, additional contextual factors clearly determine the decision to leave an organization. We theorize on how these individual, interpersonal and organizational factors are continuously traded off by volunteers during their involvement in a particular organization.

Im Rahmen dieses Beitrags wird ein Einstieg in die Diskussion zum Thema Corporate Governance von NPO geliefert, indem ein Überblick über unterschiedliche wissenschaftliche und alltagspraktische Verständnisse von Governance gegeben wird. Wissenschaftliche Governanceverständnisse werden charakterisiert, indem die Hauptmerkmale des politikwissenschaftlichen, des betriebswirtschaftlichen und des soziologischen Zugangs zur Governance dargestellt werden. Alltagspraktische Governanceverständnisse werden anhand einer Typologie dargestellt, die von betriebswirtschaftlicher über familiäre, professionalistische und zivilgesellschaftliche bis hin zu basisdemokratischer Governance reicht. Abschließend werden Überlegungen zur Zukunft der Governance von NPO angestellt. Eine weitere Verbreitung des be-triebswirtschaftlichen Governance-Diskurses ist wahrscheinlich. Alternative Governance-Zugänge bleiben jedoch notwendige Gegenpole, die wohl in Nischen des Nonprofitsektors weiterbestehen werden.

Voluntary work provides a major source of labor for many nonprofit organizations. Consequences of volunteers and paid staff working alongside each other in nonprofits are well documented. This article contributes to this strand of literature and investigates whether the presence of volunteer work influences paid employees' wages in nonprofit organizations. We estimated a multilevel wage equation accounting for personal characteristics of workers and characteristics of nonprofits. The analysis revealed that nonprofit organizations engaging volunteers pay lower wages to their employees. Our findings contribute to the understanding of wage-setting behavior of nonprofits and improve the methodological approach of empirical research in this field.

This paper aims to investigate the selection decisions support intermediaries apply towards social enterprises, according to their institutional logic. We hypothesize that intermediaries engage in ...

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between the concepts market orientation and organizational performance for nonprofit organizations. To understand the nature of this link in the nonprofit context the authors discuss and elaborate on the applicability of both concepts to nonprofits. As a result, they develop multidimensional notions of “social orientation” and “nonprofit organizational performance” which fit the specific operating environment of nonprofit organizations engaging in the provision of health and social services and in the field of education. The authors also propose a conceptual framework that relates the latter concepts and present its main underlying propositions. They conclude by suggesting items to empirically measure the constructs and venues for future research.