Sector Bias in Public Programs: US Nonprofit Hospitals

Abstract

This study investigates whether the public perceives nonprofit organizations as different from private for-profit and public organizations and whether introducing new performance management systems would provide positive credits to the organization. Using two randomized survey experiments on US hospitals (one with an adult sample and the other with a student sample), we replicate the study of Hvidman & Andersen (2016) in Denmark with an extension of adding a nonprofit organization cue. The results show no sectoral differences among the hospitals and no positive feedback for adopting a new performance management system.

Keywords: Sectoral differences, Sector bias, Performance management, Replication, Nonprofit organization