Entrepreneurs, Managers, and the Nonprofit Enterprise

Abstract

In the previous chapter of this book, Christoph Badelt provides an excellent overview and integrative commentary on entrepreneurial theories of nonprofit organization. In this chapter, I will address three principal areas of interest that Badelt has highlighted. First, I will endorse the notion that the entrepreneurial perspective can make an important contribution to the formal economic theory of the nonprofit sector. Second, I will argue that entrepreneurship theory can substantially benefit nonprofit managerial practice, but that dangers lurk in this application. Finally, I will explore how entrepreneurship theory opens doors to broader, interdisciplinary theory building for the nonprofit sector.