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Termination of Nonprofit Alliances: Evidence from China

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Abstract

Nonprofit alliances have grown with a striking speed in recent decades. While researchers focus on why nonprofits build interorganizational partnerships, few discuss how such partnerships are terminated. Through a multiple case study of 13 nonprofit alliances that had been established in response to the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in West China, this study explores how nonprofit alliances were terminated and what caused their termination. Four patterns of alliance termination emerged out of our data analysis: failure at birth, planned termination, failed transition, and evolution into independent organizations. Four determinants were identified as accountable for alliance termination: political pressure, resource shortage, short-term orientation, and leadership failure.

Résumé

Les alliances à but non lucratif se sont développées à une vitesse impressionnante ces dix dernières années. Alors que les chercheurs se concentrent sur la raison pour laquelle les organisations à but non lucratif créent des partenariats interorganisations, peu étudient comment ces partenariats prennent fin. À travers l’étude de cas multiples de 13 alliances à but non lucratif créées en réponse au séisme de 2008 au Sichuan, dans l’ouest de la Chine, cette étude examine comment les alliances à but non lucratif ont été supprimées et ce qui a provoqué leur suppression. Quatre modèles de suppression d’alliances sont apparus de notre analyse des données: une défaillance à la création, une suppression planifiée, une transition ratée et une évolution vers des organisations indépendantes. Quatre facteurs déterminants ont été définis comme responsables de la suppression de ces alliances: des pressions politiques, un manque de ressources, une orientation à court terme et un manque de leadership.

Zusammenfassung

Die Zahl der gemeinnützigen Verbände ist in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten rasant gestiegen. Während sich Forscher darauf konzentrieren, warum gemeinnützige Organisationen interorganisationale Partnerschaften gründen, diskutieren nur wenige, wie diese Partnerschaften enden. Mittels einer multiplen Fallstudie von 13 gemeinnützigen Verbänden, die in Folge des Erdbebens in Sichuan in Westchina 2008 gegründet wurden, untersucht diese Studie, wie gemeinnützige Verbände aufgelöst wurden und was der Grund für ihre Auflösung war. Aus unserer Datenanalyse ergaben sich vier Muster einer Verbandsauflösung: ein Scheitern bei der Gründung, eine geplante Auflösung, ein misslungener Übergang und eine Entwicklung von unabhängigen Organisationen. Es wurden vier Determinanten bestimmt, die für eine Verbandsauflösung verantwortlich waren: politischer Druck, Ressourcenknappheit, kurzfristige Orientierung und Führungsversagen.

Resumen

Las alianzas sin ánimo de lucro han crecido con una sorprendente actividad en décadas recientes. Aunque los investigadores se centran en por qué las organizaciones sin ánimo de lucro crean asociaciones interorganizacionales, pocos tratan cómo se terminan dichas asociaciones. Mediante un estudio de caso múltiple de 13 alianzas sin ánimo de lucro que habían sido establecidas como respuesta al Terremoto de Sichuan de 2008 en la parte occidental de China, el presente estudio explora cómo terminaron las alianzas sin ánimo de lucro y que causó su terminación. Cuatro patrones de terminación de la alianza surgieron de nuestro análisis de los datos: fallo en su nacimiento, terminación planificada, transición fallida, y evolución en organizaciones independientes. Se identificaron cuatro determinantes como responsables de la terminación de la alianza: presión política, escasez de recursos, orientación a corto plazo y falta de liderazgo.

Chinese

非盈利性联盟最近几十年在以令人吃惊的速度增长,虽然研究人员的研究集中在非营利性组织为何要相互建立合作伙伴关系, 但很少人讨论这种伙伴关系的终止方式。在本研究中,通过对13个在2008年中国西部四川的地震中应运而生的非营利性联盟的多个案例研究,探讨了非盈利性联盟的终止方式和终止原因。 我们在数据分析中发现联盟有四类终止:诞生时的失败、按计划终止、过渡失败以及演变成独立的组织。 我们发现了四个能对联盟的终止进行解释的决定因子: 政治压力、资源短缺、短期定位以及领导失败。.

Arabic

نمت التحالفات الغير ربحية في سرعة ملفتة للنظر في العقود الأخيرة. في حين يركز الباحثون على سبب أن المنظمات الغير ربحية تقيم شراكات بين المنظمات،عدد قليل ناقش كيف يتم إنهاء هذه الشراكات. من خلال دراسة حالات متعددة ل 13من التحالفات الغير ربحية التي أنشئت إستجابة للزلزال سيتشوان 2008 في غرب الصين، تبحث هذه الدراسة في كيف أنهيت تحالفات غير ربحية وما تسبب في إنهاء العمل بها. ظهرت أربعة أنماط من إنهاء التحالف من تحليل البيانات لدينا: فشل عند الإنشاء، إنهاء المخطط لها، فشل الإنتقال ، والتطور في المنظمات المستقلة. قد تم تحديد أربعة محددات كمسؤولة عن إنهاء التحالف: الضغط السياسي، نقص الموارد، توجيه على المدى القصير، وفشل القيادة.

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Notes

  1. Such nonprofit organizations are often called nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in China and many other developing countries.

  2. The extant literature offers no clear definition of alliance suitable for nonprofit organizations and the intra-sector perspective of the third sector. Most alliance studies focus on strategic motivations for alliances among firms and stress “products, technologies and services.” For example, Gulati (1998, p. 238) put forth the well-accepted and often-utilized definition “strategic alliances as voluntary arrangements between firms involving exchange, sharing, or codevelopment of products, technologies, or services.”

  3. Termination as mere dissolution or demise of an alliance is not tantamount to any kind of nonsuccess or failure. For example, a time-bound agreement between the partners to part ways at a future time-point certain does not imply any kind of performance judgment.

  4. According to Berger et al. (2004), social alliances differ from strategic alliances in that they involve at least one nonprofit partner and that they include both economic and social objectives.

  5. The state Council News Office declared on Feb 24th 2012 that the Sichuan Earthquake post-disaster reconstruction plan has been completed. See http://www.china.com.cn/zhibo/2012-02/24/content_24698719.htm.

  6. Despite the government declaring the fulfillment of the post-disaster reconstruction in the sense of facility and infrastructure rebuilding, community recovery may require 10 or more years for disasters as huge as the Sichuan Earthquake. For example, Chang (2010) examines the Kobe Earthquake recovery and finds that the local economy experienced a three to four year temporary boost and then stabilized. Also, Kobe regained the same population 10 years after the disaster. Comerio (2004) found that more than half of the recovery projects in San Francisco and Santa Cruz were still under construction 15 years after the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake.

  7. The organization was Beijing Zhendanji Center for Nonprofit Communications, a private nonenterprise unit registered in Beijing.

  8. Registration difficulty persisted even two years later when the government took tentative measures to loosen registration regulation in major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu, and Guangzhou. For example, Spires et al. (2014, p. 76) conducted a survey between 2009 and 2010 and found “in Yunnan improperly registered (including completely unregistered) NGOs accounted for 66.3 % of the provincial total. The situation was similar in Guangdong (74.6 %) and in Beijing (69.6 %).”

  9. The Ministry of Civil Affairs promulgated the Administrative Measures for Disaster Relief Donations (jiuzai juanzeng guanli banfa) in April, 2008. The Article 11 states that “If in need, donations received by the civil affairs administrations above the county level can be entrusted to social welfare agencies and licensed charitable organizations to deal with.” See http://guangxi.mca.gov.cn/article/mzyw/jzjj/201506/20150600828775.shtml.

  10. The impact of partner fit changes by alliance objective and over time. Complex objectives were more vulnerable to partner misfit than simple objectives.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Society & Community Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1300 Linden Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Ming Hu

  2. School of Social Policy & Practice, University of Pennsylvania, 3701 Locust Walk, Caster Building, Philadelphia, PA, 19104-6214, USA

    Chao Guo

  3. Department of Public Policy, University of Maryland, 1117 Van Munching Hall, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    Angela Bies

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  1. Ming Hu
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Correspondence to Ming Hu.

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Hu, M., Guo, C. & Bies, A. Termination of Nonprofit Alliances: Evidence from China. Voluntas 27, 2490–2513 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-016-9698-z

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