Browsing by Author "Ma, Ji"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    A Century of Nonprofit Studies: Scaling the Knowledge of the Field
    (Springer, 2018-12) Ma, Ji; Konrath, Sara; Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
    This empirical study examines knowledge production between 1925 and 2015 in nonprofit and philanthropic studies from quantitative and thematic perspectives. Quantitative results suggest that scholars in this field have been actively generating a considerable amount of literature and a solid intellectual base for developing this field toward a new discipline. Thematic analyses suggest that knowledge production in this field is also growing in cohesion—several main themes have been formed and actively advanced since 1980s, and the study of volunteering can be identified as a unique core theme of this field. The lack of geographic and cultural diversity is a critical challenge for advancing nonprofit studies. New paradigms are needed for developing this research field and mitigating the tension between academia and practice. Methodological and pedagogical implications, limitations, and future studies are discussed.
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    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.
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    Networked Civil Society: Three Essays on the Government–Nonprofit Relationship in China
    (2018-11) Ma, Ji; Steinberg, Richard; Pasic, Amir; Lenkowsky, Leslie; Ottoni-Wilhelm, Mark
    This dissertation has two goals: 1) Introducing data science methodologies to nonprofit studies; 2) Examining the impact of social relations on nonprofits’ social and economic behaviors. Ultimately, this dissertation provides empirical evidence for a new paradigm which is just in formation by a few scholars: a holistic network theory of government–nonprofit relationship. Chapter 2 establishes a robust and generalpurpose database which has the potential to support the development of a research topic. It also introduces the methodology for data management in contemporary quantitative social science. Based on the database established, Chapter 3 approaches the research question on nonprofit’s autonomy using network theory and finds that, although nonprofit organizations in China may lose their autonomy because of government officials on board, these organizations still enjoys a substantial level of freedom in the organizational network. The Chinese nonprofit sector suggests the existence of autonomous order theorized by political philosophers and observed in liberal societies. Chapter 4 reconsiders a classic research question in public economics – the crowd-out/in effect of government funding on private donations to nonprofits. This chapter proposes an innovative theoretical perspective for understanding the role of social relations in crowding mechanism: compensating mode and amplifying mode. Analysis suggests that, although government funding to a nonprofit may crowd out the private donations to the same organization, private donations are not reduced but redistributed to other nonprofits in the organizational network. This chapter also uses standardized data workflow to boost the research life-cycle, information extraction techniques to construct structured dataset from semi-structured raw data files, demonstrates how data science methodologies can help causal inference in classic econometrics.
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    The research infrastructure of Chinese foundations, a database for Chinese civil society studies
    (Nature Publishing group, 2017-07-25) Ma, Ji; Wang, Qun; Dong, Chao; Li, Huafang; Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
    This paper provides technical details and user guidance on the Research Infrastructure of Chinese Foundations (RICF), a database of Chinese foundations, civil society, and social development in general. The structure of the RICF is deliberately designed and normalized according to the Three Normal Forms. The database schema consists of three major themes: foundations’ basic organizational profile (i.e., basic profile, board member, supervisor, staff, and related party tables), program information (i.e., program information, major program, program relationship, and major recipient tables), and financial information (i.e., financial position, financial activities, cash flow, activity overview, and large donation tables). The RICF’s data quality can be measured by four criteria: data source reputation and credibility, completeness, accuracy, and timeliness. Data records are properly versioned, allowing verification and replication for research purposes.
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    State power and elite autonomy in a networked civil society: The board interlocking of Chinese non-profits
    (Elsevier, 2017-10-31) Ma, Ji; DeDeo, Simon; Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
    In response to failures of central planning, the Chinese government has experimented not only with free-market trade zones, but with allowing non-profit foundations to operate in a decentralized fashion. A network study shows how these foundations have connected together by sharing board members, in a structural parallel to what is seen in corporations in the United States and Europe. This board interlocking leads to the emergence of an elite group with privileged network positions. While the presence of government officials on non-profit boards is widespread, government officials are much less common in a subgroup of foundations that control just over half of all revenue in the network. This subgroup, associated with business elites, not only enjoys higher levels of within-elite links, but even preferentially excludes government officials from the NGOs with higher degree. The emergence of this structurally autonomous sphere is associated with major political and social events in the state–society relationship. Cluster analysis reveals multiple internal components within this sphere that share similar levels of network influence. Rather than a core-periphery structure centered around government officials, the Chinese non-profit world appears to be a multipolar one of distinct elite groups, many of which achieve high levels of independence from direct government control.