What drives organizational missions in the nonprofit sector? An institutional logic dependence perspective

Abstract This study examines how institutional multiplicity shapes nonprofit organizations’ mission-oriented actions by using the institutional logics perspective. We test how different institutional logics (professional, market, state, and community logics) independently and collectively affect mission-oriented actions of nonprofit organizations, focusing on the two focal subsectors: human service organizations and art and culture organizations. Using a panel dataset of 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations between 2000 and 2010, we find that multiple institutional logics jointly as well as independently affect nonprofits’ mission-oriented actions and this relationship varies between the two subsectors. The findings offer empirical evidence of how multiple logics co-exist and how the dynamics among multiple logics may shape nonprofits’ actions across different subsectors.