Factors Influencing Network Formation Among Social Service Nonprofit Organizations in Hong Kong and Implications for Comparative and China Studies

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the factors influencing network formation among social service nonprofit organizations (NPOs) in Hong Kong and aims to illustrate the value of comparative studies of network formation. We argue that two distinct funding regimes, namely a statist-corporatist regime and a liberal regime, are present in Hong Kong. Based on the characteristics of these funding regimes, we examine five factors affecting the size of networks: organizational size, joint-action experience, resource dependency, program needs, and environmental uncertainty. Our study shows that social service NPOs that were formed in two different historical time periods display markedly different operational behavior in networking. While the joint-action experience and program needs of an organization demonstrate a consistent influence on the network formation of NPOs, the effects of organizational size and resource dependency on network size are moderated by environmental uncertainty. We contend that, due to historical and political contexts that are unique to this region, hybridity may be a characteristic of state–nonprofit relations in Greater China. Such unique contexts give rise to patterns of network formation and collaborative governance that may have important implications for state–nonprofit relations and civil society development.