Nonprofit Organizations Becoming Business-Like: A Systematic Review

By now, the becoming business-like of nonprofit NPOs is a well-established global phenomenon which has received ever-growing attention from management and organization studies over the past three decades or so. However, the field remains hard to grasp in its entirety, as researchers use a multitude of similar, yet distinct, key concepts. The considerable range and complexity of these overlapping notions create three major challenges: Scholars struggle to position their work in a larger context; it is not easy to build on previous findings and methodological developments; and research gaps are difficult to identify. The present paper presents the first systematic literature review to confront those challenges, by reviewing 442 relevant sources. In a first step, the different key concepts are clarified. Secondly, the field is mapped according to three research foci: causes of NPOs becoming business-like; organizational structures and processes of becoming business-like; and effects of becoming business-like. From this we draw conclusions and make suggestions for further research.