Current research of the significance of non-profit organizations´ brands in the Czech Republic following the German example

Abstract

The planned research on the significance of branding for non-profit organizations in the Czech Republic is inspired by the research conducted by Prof. Dr. Silke Boenigk and Dr. Rer. Pol. Annika Becker from the University of Hamburg. Their research aimed to contribute in three areas. First, despite the growing awareness of the importance of branding in the non-profit sector, knowledge about approaches to assessing the strength of non-profit brand equity is limited, and most findings originate from surveys in the commercial market and consulting firms. Second, among the few existing academic studies on stakeholder perceptions of the brand, almost all are based exclusively on for-profit models without any non-profit context. Third, most academic studies on stakeholder-based branding in the non-profit sector have provided measurements based on one or a few selected non-profit brands. The international group of authors plans to obtain a representative sample of the Czech population, with a total of N=1000 respondents. To evaluate the obtained results, the authors will employ the same methodology as used in the German article by Boenigk and Becker (2016). Specifically, the Nonprofit Brand Equity Index, which is composed of factors such as brand awareness, the weight of trust in the brand, and the level of brand loyalty, and the averaged values of these parameters. Comparing this with the German research may help to identify potential differences and specific characteristics that characterize the Czech environment. The results of this study could contribute to the academic community and, at the same time, serve as a direction for further development of the nonprofit sector in the Czech Republic.