Comparative Corporate Governance of Non-Profit Organizations

Based on the impressive work of Hopt and von Hippel (2010), I review the comparative corporate governance of non-profit organizations and propose topics for future research. There is evidence of agency problems in non-profit as well as for-profit organizations, but the governance mechanisms employed to address them are by necessity different. In the absence of important governance mechanisms like monitoring by external owners or performance based pay, other mechanisms like regulation, reputation and transparency come to the foreground. However, we have little systematic knowledge of the costs and benefits of alternative governance arrangements in non-profits, which provides a range of opportunities for future research.