Contested Ideologies, Collective Action, and Crowding: Membership Dynamics in the Huiguans in Singapore, 1882-1998

Contested Ideologies, Collective Action, and Crowding: Membership Dynamics in the Huiguans in Singapore, 1882-1998

  This study examines the longitudinal membership dynamics of nonprofits. Prior research on nonprofit membership dynamics has focused on the micro dynamics of members joining or leaving nonprofits at the individual level. As a consequence, effects of organizational exogenous factors such as contested ideologies, collective action and competition among the state, organizations, and their representative association in political and identity domains has been under-theorized with the implicit assumption that these exogenous factors do not play a significant role on membership dynamics. We incorporate these three factors in our models as key factors to show how the membership growth rates of nonprofits evolve by looking at longitudinal dynamics of huiguans, Chinese immigrant organizations in Singapore, 1820-1998. We discuss some general implications regarding roles of the state, collective action, competition, and the membership dynamics of nonprofits.