EFFECTIVENESS OF NONPROFITS ON FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE SOCIAL ASPECTS OF WELL-BEING IN FOOD DESERTS by ROXANNE JIMÉNEZ Doctor of Management Nonprofit Research Fellow Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit Fellow Doctor of Management Design & Innovation Fellow Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Weatherhead School of Management Designing Sustainable Systems CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY May 2021 CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES We hereby approve the dissertation of Roxanne Jiménez candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy*. Committee Chair Chris Laszlo, Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University Committee Member Dave Aron, M.D., M.S., Case Western Reserve University Committee Member Eileen Doherty-Sil, Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University; University of Pennsylvania Committee Member Yunmei Wang, Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University Date of Defense March 16, 2021 *We also certify that written approval has been obtained for any proprietary material contained therein. © Copyright by Roxanne Jiménez, 2021 All Rights Reserved Dedication With love and devotion, I dedicate this dissertation in memory of my grandmother Aurea P. Palmer Table of Contents List of Tables .......................................................................................................................x List of Figures .................................................................................................................... xi Acronyms .......................................................................................................................... xii Abstract ..............................................................................................................................xv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND RESEARCH OVERVIEW ..................................1 Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 Research Motivation ............................................................................................................2 Specific Aims and Research Questions ...............................................................................3 Research Design and Methodology .....................................................................................6 Summary and Results of Each Study ...................................................................................8 Organization of Remainder of Dissertation .......................................................................10 CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND, LITERATURE REVIEW, AND THEORETICAL FRAMING.............................................................................................11 Background ........................................................................................................................11 Food Deserts ................................................................................................................11 Defining Food Deserts .................................................................................................12 Access to Healthy and Affordable Foods ....................................................................14 Food Deserts: Public Health Disparities ......................................................................16 Literature Review and Theoretical Framing ......................................................................18 Social Aspects of Well-Being ......................................................................................19 Nonprofit Organizational Effectiveness Theory ..........................................................23 Social Innovation Theory .............................................................................................25 Complexity Theory .................................................................................................... 30 CHAPTER 3: WHAT FACTORS INFLUENCE A FOOD DESERT RESIDENT’S WELL-BEING? (STUDY 1) .....................................................................32 Preface................................................................................................................................32 Introduction ........................................................................................................................32 Research Question .............................................................................................................35 Literature Review...............................................................................................................37 Social Cognitive Theory ..............................................................................................38 Motivation Theory .......................................................................................................39 Research Design and Methodology ...................................................................................40 Methodology ................................................................................................................40 v Sample................................................................................................................... 40 Data Collection ..................................................................................................... 41 Data Analyses ....................................................................................................... 42 Findings..............................................................................................................................42 Discussion ..........................................................................................................................49 Implications..................................................................................................................53 Academic Implications ......................................................................................... 53 Practitioner Implications ....................................................................................... 54 Future Research .................................................................................................................54 CHAPTER 4: ARE NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS EFFECTIVE IN HELPING FOOD DESERT RESIDENTS ON THE SOCIAL ASPECTS OF WELL-BEING? (STUDY2) ..............................................................................................56 Preface................................................................................................................................56 Introduction ........................................................................................................................56 Theoretical Background and Hypotheses ..........................................................................58 Problem of Practice ............................................................................................................59 Lack of Access to Healthy Food ..................................................................................59 Malnutrition .................................................................................................................62 Social Interaction .........................................................................................................63 Nonprofit Organizational Effectiveness ......................................................................64 Research Design and Methods ...........................................................................................65 Methodology ................................................................................................................65 Construct Operationalization ................................................................................ 65 Dependent Variable .............................................................................................. 65 Moderating Variable ............................................................................................. 65 Independent Variables .......................................................................................... 66 Control Variables .................................................................................................. 66 Survey and Scale Development ............................................................................ 67 Data Collection ..................................................................................................... 67 Data Screening ...................................................................................................... 68 Case and variable screening. ........................................................................... 68 Measurement Model ..........................................................................................................69 Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) .............................................................................69 Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) ..........................................................................70 vi Model Fit ............................................................................................................... 70 Reliability and Validity ......................................................................................... 71 Common Method Bias (CMB) ............................................................................. 72 Structural Model ..................................................................................................