Hybrid Until the End? Predicting Financial Vulnerability in Hybrid Purpose Organizations

Elizabeth A.M. Searing, PhD, CNP
Fellow, Venise Stuart Professorship
in Nonprofit Management & Leadership
Associate Professor, University of Texas at Dallas
Adjunct Research Professor, Carleton University

This study modifies the traditional nonprofit and for‐profit measures of predicting organizational closure to fit the Italian social cooperative. Using logistic regression, we find the hybridity of the corporate form reflected in the ideal predictors of vulnerability. Some of the traditional nonprofit measures prove important (such as operating margin), but others do not; likewise, only some for‐profit predictors (such as the warranty ratio) prove significant. Further, there are several variables that improve the model that are not common in the models for the nonprofit and for‐profit sectors. We consider this evidence that hybrid purpose organizations worldwide should develop hybrid measures and models of financial vulnerability and resilience.

Dr. Elizabeth Searing is an Associate Professor of Public and Nonprofit Management at the University of Texas at Dallas and the Fellow to the Venise Stuart Professor in Nonprofit Management and Leadership. Dr. Searing’s primary research focus is the financial management of nonprofit and social enterprise organizations, but she also conducts work on comparative social economy more broadly. She is an Associate Editor and editorial board member of Nonprofit Management & Leadership, and an editorial advisory board member at VOLUNTAS and the Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management (JPBAFM). Her articles have been published in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Nonprofit Management & Leadership, and Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.