Digitalization and the Economies of Scale in Russian NPOs[Цифровизация И Эффект Масштаба В Деятельности Нко В России]

Economies of scale, or the reduction of the average costs as a result of the organization’s growth, can be observed not only in for-profit but also in non-profit organizations. Non-profit organizations have certain characteristics that can influence their decisions on expanding their scale of services. Numerous studies point at the presence of economies of scale in NPOs. Today, economies of scale are changing under the influence of digital technologies. Researchers in Russia who study economies of scale, first of all, analyze their effect on various spheres of the economy, and also show the possibilities of their application. Economies of scale and the impact of digitalization on this effect in Russian NPOs have not yet been investigated enough. This article intends to fill in these gaps. For the analysis, data from the Monitoring the Status of Civil Society research conducted by the Centre for Studies of Civil Society and the Nonprofit Sector (HSE) in 2017 and 2018 were used. The analysis elucidates the widespread use of digital technologies by non-profit organizations. The results of the logarithmic model evaluation with the least squares method and robust regression method show that there are significant economies of scale in NPOs. There are no connections between economies of scale and digitalization in NPOs. The author did not obtain any evidence of the existence of economies of learning—i.e., the reduction of the average costs as a result of gaining experience in providing services over time—in Russian NPOs. The results emphasize the importance of supporting small non-profit organizations and assisting non-profit organizations in the process of mastering digital technologies.