ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the state of nonprofit management in Asia, focusing specifically on China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. As the most populous continent, Asia is becoming an influential economic power, producing more than half the world’s GDP. This economic growth in Asia has led to the growing number of high net-worth individuals while it has also triggered widening income and asset disparities. There is also considerable diversity in religious and cultural traditions among Asian countries, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and folk religions. Given these, we first shed light on socio-cultural, religious, political, and economic factors that have shaped the way of managing nonprofits and philanthropy in Asia. We offer an overview of the nonprofit sector, philanthropy, and social enterprises of each nation, and explore impetuses for the emergence of the sector and organizational forms and other distinct characteristics among Asian nonprofits and social enterprises. We then examine accountability and governance issues surrounding nonprofit management, including governmental regulatory enforcement, self-regulation systems adopted voluntarily by the nonprofit sector, and board management. The chapter concludes with a discussion about challenges to and future research about nonprofit management in Asian countries.
