English
Explaining survival and growth in local voluntary associations
We examine how a wide range of organizational characteristics affect the chances of survival and growth in local voluntary associations. It is demonstrated that successful organizational design greatly improves the odds of survival.
However, the same factors that stabilize an association may become liabilities with regard to growth. This means that, firstly, survival is an insufficient success criterion in organizational research. Secondly, we need to distinguish between factors that enhance survival and growth. A typology, which distinguishes between expansion, erosion, contraction and “make or break” factors, is developed to this end.