Browsing by Author "Bekkers, René"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The 2022 Global Philanthropy Environment Index Netherlands
    (IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, 2022-03-30) van Veen, W. J. M. (Wino); Bekkers, René
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Computational Social Science for Nonprofit Studies: Developing a Toolbox and Knowledge Base for the Field
    (Springer, 2023-02) Ma, Ji; Ebeid, Islam Akef; de Wit, Arjen; Xu, Meiying; Yang, Yongzheng; Bekkers, René; Wiepking, Pamala; Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
    How can computational social science (CSS) methods be applied in nonprofit and philanthropic studies? This paper summarizes and explains a range of relevant CSS methods from a research design perspective and highlights key applications in our field. We define CSS as a set of computationally intensive empirical methods for data management, concept representation, data analysis, and visualization. What makes the computational methods “social” is that the purpose of using these methods is to serve quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods social science research, such that theorization can have a solid ground. We illustrate the promise of CSS in our field by using it to construct the largest and most comprehensive database of scholarly references in our field, the Knowledge Infrastructure of Nonprofit and Philanthropic Studies (KINPS). Furthermore, we show that through the application of CSS in constructing and analyzing KINPS, we can better understand and facilitate the intellectual growth of our field. We conclude the article with cautions for using CSS and suggestions for future studies implementing CSS and KINPS.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Crowding-out or crowding-in: The dynamics of different revenue streams
    (Routledge, 2020) De Wit, Arjen; Bekkers, René; Wiepking, Pamala
    An important question in public economics is to what extent changes in government funding lead to changes in private donations. In this chapter we identify and summarize four theoretical perspectives answering this question: the micro-economic, institutional-political, institutional signaling, and organizational perspective. Reviewing the empirical support for each perspective, we find that none of the perspectives sufficiently explains the dispersed empirical evidence for the relationship between government financial support and individual philanthropic donations. We argue that the context in which nonprofit organizations operate is a relevant but often overlooked factor that influences how government support affects philanthropic giving. Research in this area should adopt a dynamic perspective, taking into account the dynamics of different nonprofit revenue streams (from governments, businesses, foundations, households) as well as contextual level factors like the subsector of the nonprofit sector and country characteristics.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Crowding-out or crowding-in: The dynamics of different revenue streams
    (Taylor & Francis, 2020) de Wit, Arjen; Bekkers, René; Wiepking, Pamala; Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
    An important question in public economics is to what extent changes in government funding lead to changes in private donations. In this chapter we identify and summarize four theoretical perspectives answering this question: the micro-economic, institutional-political, institutional signaling, and organizational perspective. Reviewing the empirical support for each perspective, we find that none of the perspectives sufficiently explains the dispersed empirical evidence for the relationship between government financial support and individual philanthropic donations. We argue that the context in which nonprofit organizations operate is a relevant but often overlooked factor that influences how government support affects philanthropic giving. Research in this area should adopt a dynamic perspective, taking into account the dynamics of different nonprofit revenue streams (from governments, businesses, foundations, households) as well as contextual level factors like the subsector of the nonprofit sector and country characteristics.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Global Philanthropy: Does Institutional Context Matter for Charitable Giving?
    (Sage, 2021-02-04) Wiepking, Pamala; Handy, Femida; Park, Sohyun; Neumayr, Michaela; Bekkers, René; Breeze, Beth; De Wit, Arjen; Einolf, Chris; Gricevic, Zbignev; Scaife, Wendy; Bethmann, Steffen; Breen, Oonagh B.; Kang, Chulhee; Katz, Hagai; Krasnopolskaya, Irina; Layton, Michael D.; Mersianova, Irina; Lo, Kunag-Ta; Osili, Una; Pessi, Anne Birgitta; Sivesind, Karl Henrik; Yamauchi, Naoto; Yang, Yongzheng
    In this article, we examine whether and how the institutional context matters when understanding individuals’ giving to philanthropic organizations. We posit that both the individuals’ propensity to give and the amounts given are higher in countries with a stronger institutional context for philanthropy. We examine key factors of formal and informal institutional contexts for philanthropy at both the organizational and societal levels, including regulatory and legislative frameworks, professional standards, and social practices. Our results show that while aggregate levels of giving are higher in countries with stronger institutionalization, multilevel analyses of 118,788 individuals in 19 countries show limited support for the hypothesized relationships between institutional context and philanthropy. The findings suggest the need for better comparative data to understand the complex and dynamic influences of institutional contexts on charitable giving. This, in turn, would support the development of evidence-based practices and policies in the field of global philanthropy.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Physiological Correlates of Volunteering
    (2016) Bekkers, René; Konrath, Sara H.; Smith, David H.
    We review research on physiological correlates of volunteering, a neglected but promising research field. Some of these correlates seem to be causal factors influencing volunteering. Volunteers tend to have better physical health, both self-reported and expert-assessed, better mental health, and perform better on cognitive tasks. Research thus far has rarely examined neurological, neurochemical, hormonal, and genetic correlates of volunteering to any significant extent, especially controlling for other factors as potential confounds. Evolutionary theory and behavioral genetic research suggest the importance of such physiological factors in humans. Basically, many aspects of social relationships and social activities have effects on health (e.g., Newman and Roberts 2013; Uchino 2004), as the widely used biopsychosocial (BPS) model suggests (Institute of Medicine 2001). Studies of formal volunteering (FV), charitable giving, and altruistic behavior suggest that physiological characteristics are related to volunteering, including specific genes (such as oxytocin receptor [OXTR] genes, Arginine vasopressin receptor [AVPR] genes, dopamine D4 receptor [DRD4] genes, and 5-HTTLPR). We recommend that future research on physiological factors be extended to non-Western populations, focusing specifically on volunteering, and differentiating between different forms and types of volunteering and civic participation.