A Scoping Review of the Causes of Nonprofit Organization Dissolution

Abstract

Despite seeing nonprofit organizations' dissolutions in Japan, the causes of this phenomenon have not been studied in our country. However, there is a body of comprehensive research on nonprofit closure from an organizational theory perspective that has been conducted in English-speaking countries. Adopting a scoping review approach, the authors summarize current findings and future research agendas based on this body of literature. The literature has found the primary factors of nonprofit closure to be a liability of newness, institutional legitimacy, community economic conditions, and mission achievement. However, the authors found that these studies have mitigating factors, such as ambiguous definitions of dissolution, biased samples, direct factor uncertainty, and a lack of investigation into the consequence of a given nonprofit's closure. This paper suggests that future research within Japan is necessary to properly consider differences in corporate structure, managerial decision-making models, factors directly contributing to nonprofit closure, and the effects of closure on the communities served.