Nonprofit Management Researchers’ Reconceptualization of Comprehensive INGO Accountability: Toward an Institutional Logics Approach

Abstract

International nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) face greater accountability demands from various stakeholders, and from their beneficiaries in particular. This has initiated an academic discourse on a more comprehensive approach to INGO accountability to maintain their legitimacy. This article addresses two research questions: What is the current understanding of accountability of INGOs? And what are theoretical venues to strengthen future research on comprehensive INGO accountability? It does so by offering a systematic literature review of the current academic discourse on INGO accountability, and advances four propositions on what comprehensive INGO accountability entails. The review further highlights that INGO accountability is dynamic and complex. The article therefore suggests a theoretical foundation that accounts for these aspects to support researchers interested in further developing comprehensive INGO accountability. It demonstrates how an institutional logics approach allows conceptualizing INGO accountability relationships to a wider set of stakeholders, including to beneficiaries. It further allows advancing an effectiveness-oriented conceptualization.