IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/nonpfo/v14y2023i4p405-414n3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rereading Salamon: Why Voluntary Failure Theory is Not (Really) About Voluntary Failures

Author

Listed:
  • Toepler Stefan

    (Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University, Arlington, VA, USA)

Abstract

Voluntary Failure or Interdependence Theory remains among the most salient of Salamon’s conceptual contributions to nonprofit studies globally. Broad criticism has been scarce. Yet, there are questions about how the theory can be tested, or whether it is even testable in the first place. A lot of these questions focus on the four voluntary failures. In this commentary, I argue that the role of the voluntary failures is often overemphasized as part of Salamon’s theoretical constructs. This overemphasis in turn lends itself to problematic interpretations of his theory, which was not intended to offer a ‘failure rationale’ for the existence of the nonprofit sector—akin to the twin failures of the market and government, but at its core seeks to provide a rationale for the positive collaborative relations between government and the nonprofit sector. Within that rationale, the voluntary failures play only a relatively minor role.

Suggested Citation

  • Toepler Stefan, 2023. "Rereading Salamon: Why Voluntary Failure Theory is Not (Really) About Voluntary Failures," Nonprofit Policy Forum, De Gruyter, vol. 14(4), pages 405-414, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:nonpfo:v:14:y:2023:i:4:p:405-414:n:3
    DOI: 10.1515/npf-2023-0080
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/npf-2023-0080
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/npf-2023-0080?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Geraldine Robbins & Irvine Lapsley, 2008. "Irish voluntary hospitals: an examination of a theory of voluntary failure," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 61-80.
    2. Shafiq Saman & Albrecht Kate & LeRoux Kelly, 2023. "Extending the Interdependence Theory to Local Public Service Provision: Evidence from Iowa," Nonprofit Policy Forum, De Gruyter, vol. 14(3), pages 255-278, July.
    3. Jang HeeSoun & Valero Jesus N. & Ford Sara, 2023. "Homeless Services during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Revisiting Salamon’s Voluntary Failure Theory," Nonprofit Policy Forum, De Gruyter, vol. 14(3), pages 279-308, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Robbins, Geraldine & Lapsley, Irvine, 2015. "From secrecy to transparency: Accounting and the transition from religious charity to publicly-owned hospital," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 19-32.
    2. Conaty, Frank & Robbins, Geraldine, 2021. "A stakeholder salience perspective on performance and management control systems in non-profit organisations," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    3. Carolyn J. Cordery & Dalice Sim & Tony Zijl & Gary Monroe, 2017. "Differentiated regulation: the case of charities," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 57(1), pages 131-164, March.
    4. Florian Gebreiter & William J Jackson, 2015. "Fertile ground: the history of accounting in hospitals," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 177-182, September.
    5. Shafiq Saman & Albrecht Kate & LeRoux Kelly, 2023. "Extending the Interdependence Theory to Local Public Service Provision: Evidence from Iowa," Nonprofit Policy Forum, De Gruyter, vol. 14(3), pages 255-278, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:nonpfo:v:14:y:2023:i:4:p:405-414:n:3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.