Abstract: Describing his Three Dichotomies Model of Marketing, Hunt (1971c) introduces the nonprofit sector/for-profit sector as one of the dichotomies observed in the marketing discipline. However, nonprofit organizations now days adopt a great deal of for-profit marketing objectives and strategies in order to achieve sustainability and establish a competitive advantage. The formation of social alliances or the competition process among agencies in mixed-form markets create a reality, where issues of interest, traditionally for for-profit firms, may be of equal interest for nonprofits. It seems the profit criterion may not be a criterion at all in distinguishing nonprofits from for-profits. After a careful examination of Hunt and Morgan’s (1997) Resource-Advantage Theory from a nonprofit perspective, the author came to the conclusion that several claims the theory makes do not fit with contemporary nonprofit organizations and the way they operate in either national or international markets. Questions arise not only for the description of the process of competition, but also for the environmental factors that influence that process. We concluded that the R-A theory has little explanatory power for nonprofit agencies, and, as result, it cannot claim to be a general theory of competition. This study proposes a new approach to competition for nonprofits around competence- based theory, financial sustainability and the formation of social capital.
Keywords: competition theory, nonprofit sector, social alliances, competence-based theory, resource-advantage theory, three dichotomies model.
Title: Competition Theory and Nonprofit Organizations
Author: Athanassios Strigas
International Journal of Management and Commerce Innovations
ISSN 2348-7585 (Online)
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