Nonprofit Marketing: Negative Case Analysis

Abstract

The author deconstructs the prevailing controversial conceptualization of nonprofit marketing and concludes it rests on three principles: voluntary exchange, an open system organization, and self-interest motivation. Negative case analysis of these principles revealed that alternative principles were ignored in the social science literature. Based on a qualitative analysis a revised conceptualization of non-profit marketing was suggested which incorporated the principles of redistribution and reciprocity, the features of a closed model of formal organization, and public interest motivation. The critical theory approach to the study used non-empirical procedures that included negative case analysis. The paper presents results of negative case analysis.