Determinants of organizational performance in a reinventing government setting: evidence from the Milwaukee school voucher programme

ABSTRACT

This paper advances the institutional entrepreneurial literature by exploring how, and when, the institutional entrepreneurial concepts embedded in theories of Reinventing Government and New Public Management are successful. Specifically, organizational level data from the nation’s oldest and largest urban school voucher programme are used to test how fundraising, reliance on government revenue, and membership in an umbrella organization impact different measures of performance. The analysis shows that organizations that fundraise, establish diverse revenue streams, and/or are members of established networks have certain performance advantages. The results are relevant to policymaker considering governance reforms premised on entrepreneurial activity.

KEYWORDS:

• Governance
• reinventing government
• new public governance
• vouchers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Diagnostic tests showed no problems with colinearity or heteroscedacticity.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michael R. Ford

Michael R. Ford is assistant professor of public administration at the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh. His research interests include public and nonprofit board governance, accountability, and school choice. He is a member of the Thomas B. Fordham and American Enterprise Institutes’ Emerging Education Policy Scholars class of 2015–16, and a 2016 ASPA Founders Fellow, prior to joining academia Michael worked for many years on education policy in Wisconsin.

Fredrik O. Andersson

Fredrik O. Andersson is assistant professor of nonprofit administration with the Helen Bader Institute for Nonprofit Management at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, and a senior fellow with the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership at the Henry W. Bloch School of Management the University of Missouri – Kansas City. He received his Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in entrepreneurship and public affairs from the Bloch School of Management at the University of Missouri – Kansas City. Before joining the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee faculty, he was a post-doctoral fellow with the George H.W. Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. His research is primarily focused on nonprofit entrepreneurship and nonprofit governance.