A Business-like strategic model that works?: Lessons learned from a Non-Profit Incubator in China

Abstract

The application of the business-like strategic model in the nonprofit sector has attracted increasing attention from scholars and practitioners in both western countries and Asian countries like China. In order to assess how the business-like strategic model can be applied successfully in an authoritarian regime, this Chapter concentrates on a single case in China's context, the Nonprofit Incubator (NPI), to identify the contributing factors to its success in applying the business-like strategic model. Drawing from two theoretical frameworks of policy window and balanced scorecard, this chapter examines the internal and external management of NPI to investigate how, and to what extent, a business-like strategic model is adopted in the context of China. Findings indicate that organizational needs to be very sensitive to both internal and external managerial environment so as to achieve its success. This chapter argues that the business-like strategic model is feasible in China without any obvious disparity compared with its implication in Western countries.