Abstract
Nonprofit entrepreneurs face a number of liabilities that are particularly significant during the emergent phase of a new nonprofit. Using a human capital perspective, this study examines the influence previous experience plays as it relates to nonprofit organizational start-up success. The study draws on a sample of 118 nascent nonprofit entrepreneurs. The results from a logistic regression analysis show no significant impact with regard to education or prior nonprofit management experience. The results, however, show that prior start-up experience significantly enhances the likelihood of start-up success.
Highlights
Creating a new organization from scratch is not an easy undertaking
Using Stinchcombe’s (1965) liability of newness concept as a starting point, which argues that such liabilities are significant during the emergent phase of new organizations (Aldrich & Yang, 2012), this article uses a human capital lens to examine the impact of previous experience on nonprofit start-up success among 118 nascent nonprofit entrepreneurs in the Kansas City metropolitan area
This study clearly demonstrates that prior start-up experience is a common feature among nonprofit entrepreneurs, they did not account for nonprofit entrepreneurs who were unable to launch new religious nonprofits
Summary
Creating a new organization from scratch is not an easy undertaking. As Low and MacMillan (1988) have noted more than three decades ago, “the list of potential pitfalls associated with starting a new venture appears limitless” (p. 142). There are examples of qualitative case studies (e.g., Carman & Nesbit, 2013) and descriptive analyses (e.g., Lecy, Van Slyke, & Yoon, 2016) that have examined the prior industry experience of nonprofit entrepreneurs. These studies have focused exclusively on start-up efforts which resulted in up-andrunning nonprofits. Using Stinchcombe’s (1965) liability of newness concept as a starting point, which argues that such liabilities are significant during the emergent phase of new organizations (Aldrich & Yang, 2012), this article uses a human capital lens to examine the impact of previous experience on nonprofit start-up success among 118 nascent nonprofit entrepreneurs in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The article concludes with a discussion of the findings and a call for more research to advance our understanding of the role that experience plays in understanding nonprofit entrepreneurship
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