Managing at the Interface of Market and Civil Society

Goal of the chapter: There is an immense body of literature on nonprofit management and third-sector research in the English-speaking world. This is true for academic as well as for practitioners’ books and papers. This chapter raises the question: What does the literature on nonprofit governance, strategy and accountability contribute to understanding challenges of complex decision making on the executive boards of social businesses? On the topic of understanding management challenges in social businesses, the chapter introduces the core literature to which the line of argument will refer throughout this book. After reading this chapter, the reader knows the basic literature on nonprofit governance, strategy and accountability, and is able to value these approaches concerning their contribution to understand challenges of complex decision making in executive boards and boards of directors at the interface of markets and civil societies.