1.Introduction 1
A.The emergence and importance of nonprofit organizations in the commons discourse 1
B.Research questions and intended contribution 3
C.Methodology 5
1.Theoretical framework 5
2.Empirical data 7
2.Commons, intellectual commons, and their tragedies 9
A.Commons traditionally defined 10
1.Commons and the tragedy of the commons 10
2.Open-access regime and common-property regime 11
B.Intellectual commons and the tragedy of the anticommons 12
1.The concept of intellectual commons 13
2.The intellectual commons movement 21
3.Nonprofit organizations and the commons environment 25
A.What is an NPO? 25
B.Institutional forms and intellectual resources 27
C.NPOs in the commons environment 32
1.Social norms and licensing terms 33
2.Organizational support for peer-production projects 38
3.Legal support 51
4.Political advocacy 53
5.Information access and repositories 55
6.Public-interest grant-making 58
4.Current nonprofit organization theories and their applications 62
A.Contract failure theory 62
1.Theory 62
2.Applications 64
3.Theoretical implications 89
4.The limitations of contract failure theory 103
B.Market and government failure theory 106
1.Theory 106
2.Applications 108
3.Theoretical implications 124
4.The limitations of government and market failure theory 135
5.Associating nonprofit organizations with the commons environment 144
A.Nonproprietary ownership 145
1.The nonproprietary nature of the commons 145
2.The nonproprietary nature of the NPOs 147
B.Gift culture 150
1.The gift culture in the commons discourse 150
2.The incompatibility between the gift culture and exclusive control 152
3.The gift culture in the NPO discourse 155
4.The new hybrid economy 159
C.Virtual communities 160
1.The community attribute of the commons environment 160
2.NPOs' unique fit with the community relationship 163
3.NPOs, communities, and social capital 165
6.Conclusion 168
Appendices 170
Appendix Ⅰ: List of interviewees 170
Appendix Ⅱ: Interview protocols 172
Interview protocols 1 172
Interview protocols 2 173
Bibliography 174
Index 195