Community influences and urgency in nonprofits

What is it about?

Mainstream arts management and stakeholder research highlights the relationships between nonprofit organizations and community, yet empirical research on how those interactions result in outcomes is limited. This paper looks at the stakeholder attribute “urgency” and the impact on and by the stakeholder group “community.” Building on a comparative case study of five cultural organizations and their capital intensive facility projects, our research finds that both new and existing organizations embrace a community-wide process whereby internal and external stakeholders are identified, relationships nurtured, social and emotional bonds strengthened, and shared urgency between community and organization is created towards specific outcomes.

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Why is it important?

Firms of all types who consider community influences on their products and services will find value in this research. It is focused on when, how, and in what ways the community stakeholder group impacts, or is impacted by, the boundaries of major strategic initiatives. Research on the stakeholder attribute of urgency, particularly shared urgency, are unique in this paper, as the bulk of prior stakeholder research focuses on power and legitimacy attributes.