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Leadership succession and the performance of nonprofit organizations: A fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis
Author(s) -
Li Hui
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
nonprofit management and leadership
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.844
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1542-7854
pISSN - 1048-6682
DOI - 10.1002/nml.21339
Subject(s) - qualitative comparative analysis , ecological succession , successor cardinal , context (archaeology) , professionalization , comparative case , strategic leadership , corporate governance , business , sociology , management , political science , public relations , leadership style , economics , computer science , social science , mathematical analysis , ecology , paleontology , linguistics , philosophy , mathematics , machine learning , biology
Leadership succession is critical to the performance of nonprofit organizations. Existing research has mostly treated leadership succession as an instantaneous event, and it has examined the independent effects of certain factors on organizational performance. However, little research has focused on the combinations of causally relevant factors. This article integrated organizational life cycle, resource dependence, and institutional theories, as well as the organizational fit literature, to explain how contextual and strategic factors combine to affect postsuccession performance. A fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was used to analyze 15 succession events in Chinese environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The study identified four pathways to good NGO performance after succession. It also highlighted that it is not succession per se but the succession context (i.e. founders' control, board governance, professionalization, and political environment) and the strategic orientations of the successor that affect postsuccession performance in nonprofit organizations.