Measuring Performance in the Third Sector

Special issue call for papers from

Guest Editors: Carolyn Cordery, Victoria University, Wellington and Rowena Sinclair, AUT University, Auckland.

Submissions are invited for a QRAM special issue exploring the measurement of performance in the Third Sector. The Third Sector is broad and includes: nongovernmental organizations, social enterprises, charities, and membership nonprofit organizations, for example cooperatives, sports clubs, arts organizations and professional associations.

Measuring the performance of Third Sector organisations is challenging. In recent years researchers and consultants have derived economic measures such as Social Return on Investment and Cost-benefit Analysis frameworks. Yet these quantitative measures are controversial and often infeasible. However, the need remains for Third Sector organizations to show the difference they make in their communities, to be clear about the outcomes they are working towards, and to use performance frameworks to utilise scarce resources effectively.

The sought submissions potentially include, but are not limited to, studies into the:

• Implementation and operation of performance frameworks
• Stakeholder engagement with organizations' performance information
• Tensions (and mitigation thereof) relating to performance demands from developed country donors to developing countries’ aid organizations
• Social auditing and other performance related audits
• Integration of non-economic and economic information
• The role of annual reports in telling organizations’ stories
• Management issues relating to performance management and measurement
• Managing the performance of volunteers
• Building evaluative capacity in the Third Sector
• Extending Third Sector capability in monitoring evaluation and performance development
• The impact of context on the credibility of performance related information

Submission process

Submissions are due by 31 August 2012

Authors are welcome to contact the Guest Editors in advance to discuss their proposed topics.
Manuscripts should be prepared and submitted in accordance with QRAM guidelines (see http://info.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/author_guidelines.htm?id=qram) and will be subject to QRAM’s regular double-blind review process. All submissions must be made via QRAM’s online system at: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/qram (please specify that your submission is to the special issue on ‘‘Measuring performance in the Third Sector’’).
Accepted papers are scheduled for publication in September 2013.

For further information, please contact the Guest Editors:
Dr Carolyn Cordery, School of Accounting and Commercial Law, Victoria University, Wellington Tel: +64 44635761; E-mail: Carolyn.Cordery@vuw.ac.nz; and
Dr Rowena Sinclair, Department of Accounting, AUT University, Auckland
Tel: +64 99219999 ext 5377; E-mail: Rowena.Sinclair@aut.ac.nz.