Strategy Management in a Non-Profit Organization: The Case of AVMA

Strategy Management in a Non-Profit Organization:The Case of AVMA1

Michael R. Dicks and Bridgette Bain

A non-profit is simply a business entity that is distinguished by preventing a distribution of net earnings to any and all individuals that exhibit control over the entity. This alone is the sole characteristic that distinguishes a not for profit organization from a for profit organization. This characteristic has several important economic consequences. However, it is important to realize that non-profits can and do organize themselves with many different structures not unlike those of for-profits. A key component of both is their formation to gain pecuniary economies, lower input costs or create greater value of output through greater size.

Hansmann2 uses two sets of characteristics to distinguish the basic types of non-profits: financing source and control. Two broad categories of financing include donations and contributions (donative) versus fees and prices for services (commercial). The two broad categories of control are those that are operated by the members (mutual) and those that are operated free from their patrons’ control (entrepreneurial). This leads to four categories of non-profits, but many are organized somewhere in between the categories. AVMA would likely be considered a commercial-mutual, non-profit while Veterinary Information Network (VIN) and North American Veterinary Community (NAVC) would be considered commercial-entrepreneurial for profit.

In competitive markets, profit seeking firms will provide the amount of goods and services demanded by consumers at a price they are willing to pay and the firm is willing to sell. In this competitive market, consumers can compare products and prices from various firms, select the goods or services at a specific price, and determine if they got what they paid for. what they got. The goal of the for-profit firm is to maximize the difference between the cost of the product or service and its price. This is the source of competition in the market. The firm attempts to increase the difference between price and cost while the consumer seeks to reduce that difference. If the good or service that the consumer demands is one that is persistent (needs regularly), the consumers may be better off forming a non-profit because there is no incentive on the part of the non-profit management to increase the difference between price and cost.

The principle difference then between for-profits and not-for-profits is how the difference in the fundamental incentive is transposed into the mission of the entity. For-profits attempt to maximize returns to firm owners (maximize the difference between price and cost of goods and services) while non-profits attempt to maximize returns to consumers/members (minimize the difference between price and cost of goods and services). As a result of this notable difference,

1 AVMA Report on the 2014 Performance Survey 2 Hansmann, Henry B. , The Role of Nonprofit Enterprise , The Yale Law Journal, Vol 89, No. 5, April 1980

2014 AVMA Performance Survey

Federal and State governments have developed incentives and regulations that differ; for-profits have regulations, charters and bylaws that focus on protecting the shareholders from the interference by those who exercise control over the corporation while non-profits have regulations, charters and bylaws designed to protect the members from those who exercise control of the corporation (association).

Simply, for-profits are managed and regulated to maximize returns to owners, while non-profits are organized, managed and regulated to maximize value to the customer. Thus, the performance of a non-profit should be measured in how well the non-profit is organized, managed and provides for the maximum value to the member/customer. Of particular importance is the concept that members belong to a non-profit because, unlike a for-profit, members believe that the non-profit (management) can be trusted not to exploit them for their own gain while delivering the goods and services demanded.

AVMA Performance Survey

Non-profits are organized as an economic response to a particular set of member needs. As noted earlier, the advantage of a non-profit over a for-profit stems from the lack of incentive in the non-profit to maximize the difference between revenue and costs and instead focus on meeting a specific set of member values from the provision of goods and services. Failure of the non-profit to achieve a high level of member satisfaction pushes the member towards indifference between a for-profit and a non-profit organization, allowing new for-profits to invade the customer space of the non-profit. Thus, it is important for non-profits to be able to adequately define member demands, the relative importance in the provision of these demands, and the level of performance or quality of the goods and services provided to meet these demands. To be effective, non-profits attempt to guarantee a maximization of member value based on the resources available by ensuring that the gap between the value members attribute to the goods and services provided is as close as possible (or greater than) to the cost of providing those goods and services.

Herman and Renz3 conducted a study that focused on a subset of especially effective and less effective non-profits and identified several characteristics unique to those that were more effective, including more effective boards (as judged by various stakeholder groups), boards with a higher social prestige, boards that used more practitioner-identified correct management procedures, and boards that used more change management strategies. The authors point out that “The theory of organizational effectiveness has a complex history. In brief, it may be summarized as the development of alternatives to or modifications of what has been called the goal model of

3 Herman, Robert D., David O. Renz, “Nonprofit Organizational Effectiveness: Contrasts Between Especially Effective and Less Effective Organizations, NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP, vol. 9, no. 1, Fall 1998

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effectiveness. The idea that organizations have goals is, of course, the commonsense view and a fundamental aspect of two widely accepted perspectives on organizations: the purposive-rational (Pfeffer, 1982) and managed systems (Elmore, 1978) models. However, over time there have been many criticisms of the goal model (summarized in Mohr, 1982). In reaction, several alternatives have been proposed. Cameron (1986), for example, distinguishes the alternatives as system resource, internal processes, multiple constituencies, competing values, legitimacy, fault driven, and high performing models. Others have distinguished somewhat different categories.”

Herman and Renz point out that “NPO effectiveness assessment may be described by the parable of the blind men and the elephant. In that well-known parable, one man touches the elephant’s tail and so describes the elephant as like a rope; another touches the back and says the animal is something big and bristly; and so on. The analogy implies that effectiveness is a real thing that may be perceived in partial and thus different ways. The social constructionist view, however, says there is no elephant at all. Rather, different people look for different things and what they “see” is determined by a social process.

The Herman and Renz study analyzed 64 non-profits that varied by size and operation in an attempt to understand the importance of specific management practices and processes in delivering member satisfaction. Several conclusions of the study are worth repeating.

For those non-profits whose members are telling them they are not doing well, adopting improved management practices may be a good idea.

Attempting to improve management process and practices will not be sufficient to align members’ judgments with the organization’s goals and objectives. The organization will need to more completely understand what criteria are important to members (expectations) and communicate to the members the organization’s performance in meeting these expectations.

Non-profits should facilitate a dialogue with stakeholders to identify specific expectations, performance criteria and outcome measures that are likely to become the basis for stakeholders’ judgments of the organization’s effectiveness.

Finally, their bottom line is summed up in the statement that only those organizations that exceed a “fairly high minimum level of effectiveness” are likely to survive for long.

Based on the work of Herman and Renz, the first order of business is to identify an NPO’s expectations, performance criteria and outcome measures that are likely to form stakeholders’ judgment of organizational performance – an analysis often referred to as a member satisfaction analysis.

To initiate this analysis will require information collected through an organizational performance survey. The performance survey is established to determine the relative value of the major component areas (grouping of goods and services) currently provided by the non-profit, in this case the AVMA. The large “bucket” (major component) approach is based on the research of

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Gruen, Summers and Acito4 that indicates that performance of the core services has the greatest effect on member participation and retention.

To meet this objective, a survey of members is conducted. The survey should attempt to contain a 5% sample of members and be designed to measure members’ expectations of AVMA goods and services offerings in terms of major component areas and also determine how well AVMA is perceived at meeting members’ expectations of performance in each of the areas.

Conceptual Analysis

This approach is well grounded in theory – the expectancy-value model (Fishbein & Ajzen) posits that a person’s attitudes toward an object (the AVMA, in this case) are a function of beliefs about that object and positive or negative evaluations of these beliefs. The beliefs about the object or expectancy can be measured as the importance of the service to the member or to the profession. Based on the results of the focus groups held at the Veterinary Leadership Conference, measuring the importance to the member personally would be best, as those in the focus group suggested a clear “me” focus5.

While member expectations for AVMA serves as a proxy for member beliefs, member value can be measured in terms of whether the member thinks AVMA is doing a good job or not on services that they expect to be provided (deem as most important). Thus, the more important a service is to a member, and the better a member thinks AVMA is doing in delivering that service, the higher the value of AVMA to the member.

Functionally, there are three analyses that can be performed as follows;

A) Member Satisfaction = f(Expectations)B) Member Satisfaction = f(Performance)C) Member Satisfaction = f(Expectations – Performance)

Member Satisfaction (dependent variable) will be measured using two different approaches, based on two questions that attempt to measures how well AVMA is performing in reaching members expectations. The two questions that will be used to provide measures of member satisfaction are;

How likely would you be to encourage a fellow veterinarian to join as a member or renew membership in the AVMA?

Not at all, slightly, moderately, very, extremely

4 Gruen, Thomas, John Summers and Frank Acito, “Relationship Marketing Activities, Commitment, and membership Behaviors in Professional Associations”, Journal of Marketing Vol 64, July 2000, 34-495 Ajzen, I. & Fishbein, M. (1980) Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:Prentice-Hall

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How would you evaluate the value you get from the programs/services offered through the AVMA as compared to the cost of $320 for the membership?

No value for the moneyVery little value for the moneySome value for the moneyA lot of value for the moneyA great deal of value for the money

Thus, there will be two sets of equations. The first set using the passive form of satisfaction – relative value as a function of cost. The second set is an active form of satisfaction – willingness to take action. The difference in the two may define the willingness to be a member as a matter of professional responsibility.

Expectations (independent variables) will be measured as members response as to how important it is for AVMA to be performing a specific activity that one associates with a major component (bucket of good and services).

Member satisfaction as a function of expectations will provide an indication of the degree to which members have come to anticipate the level of performance. Members are thought to “adapt to a certain level of performance”. They form expectations consistent with these performance levels, and these expectations serve as the baseline for [members’] satisfaction assessments.” (Syzmanski and Henard, 2001) In setting expectations, members gather information from a number of sources, many of which tie directly to past levels of performance. Thus, satisfaction is tied directly to expectations. If a member perceives performance as poor and then comes to expect poor performance they will also indicate lower levels of satisfaction.

The idea that members can anticipate the level of performance is a long term proposition. That is, only through the repeated interaction of the member with the product or service for which satisfaction is being measured, does the member anticipate the level of performance. And, this assumes that the member perceives no change in direction of the level of performance.

Thus, where expectations and performance line up, the level of satisfaction is sure to follow. However, But what of the situation where the level of performance is not consistent with the expectation? The research describes this as disconfirmation. A positive disconfirmation, where the perceived level of performance exceeds the expectation, will be associated with a higher level of satisfaction while a negative disconfirmation will be associated with a lower level of satisfaction.

Finally, expectations themselves may bias the perception of performance. That is, if I have formed positive expectations about a product or service, I am more likely to look for the positive attributes; whereas, if I have formed negative expectations I am more likely to look for the negative attributes and weigh them more heavily in my measure of performance. Where members form “anti-establishment collectives” therein lies their a-priori belief that the goods and services are poor will bias their perception that the goods and services performance is poor.

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Because of these implications of expectations on member satisfaction, measuring the change in expectations over time and understanding why that change occurs is more important than simply knowing the current level of expectations.

Relative expectations for the defined buckets will be sought independently (as separate questions for each bucket) and in a summary question as a ranking.

The role of expectations (anticipated) in determining member satisfaction can be determined as indicated in equation A. The relative importance of each bucket can be determined by the size of the coefficient for each of the buckets. For instance, in the equation Y = aX + b, there is a relationship between Y and X defined by “a”, the coefficient. The coefficient measures how much Y changes as a result of changes in X. The larger the “a” (coefficient), the more important the “X “in determining the level of Y.

While the size of the coefficient indicates the amount of change in satisfaction that is associated with a change in expectations, the T-statistic for the specific expectation indicates the relative importance of the expectation in explaining the variation in satisfaction. A T-statistic in excess of 1.96 (either positive or negative) indicates that a 95 percent probability exists that the expectation is significant in explaining the variation in satisfaction.

If a specific expectation is found not to be significant in explaining the variation in satisfaction this does not mean that there is no relationship between the expectation and satisfaction. It could indeed have a relationship, but that relationship may be masked by another variable that has a higher degree of association with the satisfaction.

Finally, as a check on members’ relative rankings of the expectation “buckets,” a question is provided to allow the survey respondents to explicitly rank each expectation. This ranking provides an additional measure of the relative importance of each of the expectations and more importantly allows for the separation of expectations that may be found equal when the importance is determined independently.

Performance (Independent variable) will be measured as members’ response to how well they believe AVMA is fulfilling their expectations for each specific bucket. As noted above, performance is a component of disconfirmation, but it also directly affects satisfaction. Because members’ determination of the level of performance is “perceived” rather than some evaluated actual, it is not a definitive variable and contains at least three potential factors that will influence members’ perceived level of performance.

1) Was the expected outcome actually delivered2) Was the knowledge of the outcome communicated 3) Was the expected outcome in line with the actual outcome

For buckets with high relative expectation coefficients and low performance measures (negative disconfirmation) additional work to determine the source of the low performance will be a top priority.

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As noted earlier, performance is important in determining member’s level of satisfaction through disconfirmation of expectations, the difference between expectations and performance. However, there also exists a direct relationship between satisfaction and performance. More specifically, the value of a good or service is tied directly to the level of satisfaction in obtaining that good or service. Thus, the relationship between the level of satisfaction and performance can be expected to be positive.

Considering that anticipated expectations are arrived at through the long-term perception of performance identifying the perception of changes in the level of performance over time are important.

Expectations – Performance (Independent variable) Literally, the difference in the score between expectations and performance (level of disconfirmation) will be the independent variable used to define member satisfaction. These scores can range from 4 (expectation of 5 minus minimum performance level of 1) to -4 (minimum expectation level of 1 minus highest performance level 5). A high positive score indicates high expectations and low performance and would be expected to have a negative effect on the member satisfaction. A negative score would suggest that performance exceeds expectations and would be expected to have a positive effect on member satisfaction.

The most important buckets to focus on are those with high expectations and low performance that have a significant impact on satisfaction. Before considering the level of performance and what factor is creating the low performance rating, the expectation itself must be examined to determine what factors form the basis for the expectation.

Major components (buckets)1. Advocacy and Policy (AP) - Advocate for the best interest of the profession with

legislators and regulators2. Economics and Finance (E) - Study and provide solutions for ensuring the economic

viability of the profession3. Insurance (I) - Provide access or assistance in obtaining personal and professional

insurance4. Member Services (MS) - Provide individual member services (career services,

personalized support, etc.)5. Convention (C) - Offer a national convention6. Publications (J) - Offer a professional journal7. Continuing education/Professional Development (CE) - Offer continuing education8. Accreditation/Certification (AC) - Provide accreditation and certification of veterinary

medical universities and schools9. Networking (N) - Provide networking opportunities10. Public Value (PV) - Promote the value of the profession to the general public11. Leadership (L) - Provide strong, representative leadership for the future of the profession

Thus Member Satisfaction (MSAT) will be defined as

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MSAT = EXP (AP + E + I + MS + C + J + CE + AC + N + PV + L).

In some cases such as with Advocacy and Policy, there are sub-buckets such as International (Int), National (Nat), State/Local (S/L), Animal Welfare (AW), and protecting veterinary commerce (PVC), i.e., protecting veterinarian profitability. In these cases we can determine the importance of the sub buckets in forming the expectations (or performance) about the larger bucket as

EXP AP = EXP (Int, Nat, S/L, AW, PVC).

Finally, the questions are really focused on personal expectations and performance as they relate to individual welfare (benefits to the member). The focus groups made clear that veterinarians looked at all the issues from both the top down and bottom up welfare perspective. That is, what is good for the profession (all veterinarians) will trickle down as good for me and what is good for me will be good for the profession. There was very little emphasis on the “public good” value of AVMA membership in the focus groups and thus the questions are focused on personal expectations.

MethodsA random stratified sample of AVMA members and veterinary students was selected. Stratification was conducted to ensure a statistically valid sample of respondents from 16 allied veterinary associations. The total sample included 16,000 AVMA members and 5,000 students. In addition, all volunteers on AVMA councils, committee or other leadership positions were asked to complete the survey. Access to the survey was provided to respondents via email the first week in March and the survey recipients were given three weeks to complete the survey. A reminder was sent at the beginning of the second and third weeks. The response rates are provided below.

Activities

Launch first email

Launch reminder to non-starters

Launch reminder to "quit in body"

Completed Surveys 3/5 am 3/6 am 3/7 am 3/10 am 3/11 am 3/12 am 3/13 am 3/14 am 3/17 am 3/18 am 3/19 am 3/20 am 3/20 am 3/24 amStudents 178 197 215 216 269 298 304 318 318 378 391 395 401Member 659 806 972 1018 1489 1672 1748 1827 1827 2251 2418 2486 2534Retired 50 57 63 67 100 112 112 118 115 140 152 153 155Volunteer 73 91 113 117 157 182 186 200 200 230 238 244 250Total 960 1151 1363 1418 2015 2264 2350 2463 2460 2999 3199 3278 3340

Response Rate (bouncebacks removed) 3/6 am 3/7 am 3/10 am 3/11 am 3/12 am 3/13 am 3/14 am 3/17am 3/18 am 3/19 am 3/20 am 3/20 am 3/24 amStudents 5% 6% 6% 6% 8% 9% 9% 9% 9% 11% 11% 11% 12%Member 4% 5% 6% 7% 10% 11% 11% 12% 12% 15% 16% 16% 16%Retired 7% 8% 9% 9% 14% 15% 15% 16% 16% 19% 21% 21% 21%Volunteer 16% 20% 25% 26% 35% 41% 42% 45% 45% 51% 53% 55% 56%Total 5% 6% 7% 7% 10% 11% 11% 12% 12% 15% 15% 16% 16%

The data was received in SPSS format and consisted of 3340 responses, with the majority of the responses coming from regular members. The respondents were distributed as follows:

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Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Regular Member 2620 78.4 78.4

Student Chapter Member 395 11.8 11.8

Retired member 156 4.7 4.7

Recent Grad member 128 3.8 3.8

Honor Roll Member 17 .5 .5

Member- Educational 15 .4 .4

Student Chapter non member 6 .2 .2

Member- Short term reduced fees 3 .1 .1

Total 3340 100.0 100.0

The response rate for all Allied Associations combined was approximately 4.1% and this was distributed across the various associations as indicated below. The “% of membership” indicates the respondents as a percent of the allied associations’ membership, and the “% of Membership belonging to AVMA” represents the survey respondents as a % of the allied associations’ membership that are also AVMA members.

(All respondents are AVMA members)N % of

Membership

% of Membership Belonging to

AVMAAmerican Animal Hospital Association 385 2.8% 3.3%

American Association of Equine Practitioners 174 2.8% 3.2%

American Association of Bovine Practitioners 110 3.0% 3.6%

American Association of Feline Practitioners 74 3.6% 4.0%

American Association of Veterinary Clinicians 40 2.4% 3.7%

Society for Theriogenology 40 2.5% 3.0%

American Academy of Veterinary Acupuncture 35 3.9% 4.2%

American Association of Small Ruminant Practitioners 33 3.9% 4.6%

Association of Avian Veterinarians 33 4.3% 4.9%

American Association of Food Safety Veterinarians 32 4.0% 5.7%

American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association 32 2.8% 3.1%

American Society of Laboratory Animal Practitioners 32 4.6% 5.9%

American Association of Swine Veterinarians 28 3.5% 4.8%

National Association of Federal Veterinarians 22 1.3% 4.4%

American Association of Avian Pathologists 20 4.3% 4.9%American Association of Corporate and Public Practice Veterinarians 8 2.5% 2.7%

The results were processed to summarize findings. A set of descriptive statistics was provided for each independent variable to determine the characteristics of distribution and central tendency.

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The independent variables are arranged with the expectation given first followed by the perceived level of performance. Following the list of these pairs, the descriptive statistics are given for the list of independent variables in the form, expectation – performance.

The descriptive statistics include the number of responses, mean, standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis, and the number of responses given as “don’t know.” (“don’t know” was treated as a no response) The mean is the measure of central tendency. The standard deviation provides the value, that when added and subtracted from the mean provides the range for which 68% of the responses exist and twice the standard deviation when added and subtracted from the mean indicates the range where 95% of the responses. For instance, a mean of 3 with a standard deviation of 0.5 indicates that 68% percent of the responses lie between 2.5 and 3.5 and 95% lie between 2 and 4. Thus, the standard deviation provides an idea of how concentrated the response was around the mean. The smaller the standard deviation, the more concentrated the responses were around the mean value of the response.

Skewness is a measure of the asymmetry of the distribution. The distribution of responses around the mean is said to be “normal” if the distribution resembles a “bell curve” and the number of responses is equal both to the right and left of the mean as indicated in the figure below.

When the right and left tails of the distribution are not equal the distribution is skewed either to the right (positive) or to the left negative as indicated in the figures below.

When the data is nonparametric (a limited set of whole number responses) as in this survey if the distribution is skewed right (positive skewness) than the median is to the left of the mean and if the distribution is skewed left (negative skewness) the median is to the right of the mean.

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Because the median indicates the point at which half the responses are to the right and half are to the left, the skewness provides an indication of where the level of the response at which most responses are concentrated. For instance, if the mean is 3 but the distribution is negatively skewed, then the median is greater than 3 and the majority of responses are above 3. Thus, the greater the skewness the more the responses are concentrated on the left or right of the mean. As a result, the level of skewness provides an indication of the concentration of responses with respect to the mean.

Kurtosis is the degree of “peakedness” of the distribution as depicted in the figure below. When the value of kurtosis is zero, the responses are distributed normally. However, a positive kurtosis indicates a more concentrated distribution around the mean while a negative kurtosis indicates a more diffuse distribution of responses around the mean. Thus, there is an association with the standard deviation and the measure of kurtosis, as both give an idea of how tightly concentrated the responses are around the mean.

The tables below provide the descriptive statistics. These statistics are important in gaining a clear understanding of the membership’s expectations and perception of performance. While the mean provides a measure of the central tendency of the responses, the measures of standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis provide a picture of the distribution of the responses around the mean. A smaller standard deviation and greater kurtosis indicates that there was strong agreement, while a high negative or positive skewness indicates that this strong agreement is to the right or left of the mean.

The first set of questions for the survey is “How important do you think it is that the AVMA intervene to prevent legislation that could adversely affect the profession and practice? How would you rate the AVMA's efforts at intervening to prevent legislation that could adversely affect the profession and practice?” The mean of the expectation question is 4.78 and for the mean of the performance question the mean is 3.88. Both have a negative skewness indicating a long tail to the left and thus the median response is to the right of the mean. Because the kurtosis is positive the responses are more concentrated around the mean. For the expectation question this is an important description of responses as the descriptive statistics imply that the respondents strongly agree that this is a very important service for AVMA. On a scale of 1-5, there is a concentration of responses to the right of 4.78 (at 5) and thus most respondents have

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assigned this as a top priority. However, members’ perception as to how well AVMA is providing these services are markedly lower and the degree of agreement more dispersed.

The descriptive statistics for the satisfaction variables (dependent variables) are presented first followed by the descriptive statistics for the set of questions (independent variables) with the set that has the highest level of expectation (importance) first and the lowest level of expectation (importance) last.

Descriptive Statistics for Dependent Variables

Dependent Variable N Mean

Std. Deviatio

n Skewness Kurtosis

How likely would you be to encourage a fellow veterinarian to join as a member or renew membership in the AVMA?

3340 3.78 1.04 -0.64 -0.04


3340 3.15 0.81 0.13 0.14

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Descriptive Statistics for Independent VariablesStatistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Std.

Error Statistic Std. Error

N MeanStd.

Deviation

Skewness Kurtosis Don't Know

How important do you think it is that the AVMA intervene to prevent legislation that could adversely affect the profession and practice?

3340 4.78 .487 -2.346 .042 5.798 .085

How would you rate the AVMA's efforts at intervening to prevent legislation that could adversely affect the profession and practice?

2811 3.88 .872 -.829 .046 1.011 .092 15.8%

How important do you think it is that the AVMA protects the reputation of the veterinary profession? 3340 4.71 .595 -2.430 .042 7.277 .085

How well do you think the AVMA protects the reputation of the veterinary profession? 2961 3.41 1.002 -.388 .045 -.144 .090 11.3%

How important do you think it is that AVMA advocate for the best interests of the profession? 3340 4.67 .591 -1.879 .042 4.104 .085

How well do you think the AVMA advocates for the best interests of the profession? 2883 3.31 .992 -.445 .046 -.045 .091 13.7%

How important do you think it is that AVMA represent the veterinary profession to federal and state legislators and regulators?

3340 4.64 .589 -1.620 .042 2.618 .085

How well do you think the AVMA represents the veterinary profession to federal and state legislators and regulators?

2680 3.51 .904 -.414 .047 .220 .095 19.8%

How important do you think it is that AVMA assures the quality of veterinary medical education through accreditation and certification programs?

3340 4.63 .666 -2.244 .042 6.436 .085

How well do you think the AVMA is doing in assuring the quality of veterinary medical education through accreditation and certification programs?

2991 3.55 1.074 -.681 .045 .012 .090 10.4%

How important do you think it is that the AVMA keep you informed of national issues or trends that could affect the profession?

3340 4.62 .562 -1.280 .042 1.154 .085

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Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Std. Error Statistic Std. Error

N MeanStd.

Deviation


How well do you think the AVMA is doing at keeping you informed about national issues or trends that could affect the procession?

3081 3.59 .893 -.486 .044 .306 .088 7.8%

How important do you think it is that AVMA promote the veterinary profession to the general public? 3340 4.44 .776 -1.381 .042 1.650 .085

How well do you think the AVMA is promoting the veterinary profession to the general public? 2918 2.92 .968 -.097 .045 -.253 .091 12.6%

How important do you think it is that the AVMA take a strong public position on issues (e.g. animal welfare, drug compounding) related to veterinary medicine?

3340 4.43 .731 -1.190 .042 1.219 .085

How well do you think the AVMA is doing at taking strong public positions on issues related to veterinary medicine?

3045 3.24 .975 -.250 .044 -.118 .089 8.8%

How important do you think it is that the AVMA provide leadership to lead the profession into the future? 3340 4.42 .714 -1.141 .042 1.231 .085

How well do you think the AVMA is doing at providing leadership to lead the profession into the future? 2814 3.11 .991 -.321 .046 -.135 .092 15.7%

How important do you think it is that AVMA provide guidelines and standards for veterinary professionals? 3340 4.38 .749 -1.136 .042 1.245 .085

How well do you think the AVMA is doing at providing guidelines and standards for veterinary professionals? 3027 3.51 .902 -.432 .044 .198 .089 9.4%

How important do you think it is that AVMA speak for the veterinary profession to the general public? 3340 4.35 .778 -1.055 .042 .752 .085

How well do you think the AVMA speaks for the veterinary profession to the general public? 2840 3.04 .985 -.124 .046 -.315 .092 15.0%

How important do you think it is that the AVMA offer solutions to enhance the economic conditions of the profession?

3340 4.28 .824 -.986 .042 .574 .085

How well do you think AVMA is doing at offering solutions that will enhance the economic conditions of the profession?

2668 2.54 .968 .082 .047 -.407 .095 20.1%

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N MeanStd.

Deviation


How important do you think it is that AVMA works closely with allied associations (e.g., American Association of Feline Practitioners, American Association of Bovine Practitioners) of the veterinary profession?

3340 4.25 .772 -.765 .042 .088 .085

How well do you think the AVMA works with the allied associations of the veterinary profession? 2079 3.48 .846 -.313 .054 .388 .107 37.8%

How important do you think it is that AVMA engages in activities to advance the veterinary profession, even when there may not be an obvious tangible benefit to you personally?

3340 4.22 .753 -.796 .042 .661 .085

How well do you think the AVMA engages in activities to advance the veterinary profession? 2537 3.32 .871 -.199 .049 .154 .097 24.0%

How important do you think it is that AVMA use various communication channels to reach out to its members?

3340 4.22 .765 -.714 .042 .122 .085

How well do you think the AVMA uses various communication channels to reach out to its members? 3014 3.37 .885 -.295 .045 .160 .089 9.8%

How important do you think it is that being a member of the AVMA gives you access to group liability insurance?

3340 4.21 1.018 -1.412 .042 1.606 .085

How well do you think the AVMA is doing in giving you access to group liability insurance? 2816 4.21 .878 -1.206 .046 1.678 .092 15.7%

How important do you think it is that AVMA assures the quality of veterinary technician education through an accreditation program?

3340 4.18 .870 -.983 .042 .759 .085

How well do you think the AVMA is doing in assuring the quality of veterinary technician education through an accreditation program?

1972 3.41 .951 -.427 .055 .130 .110 41.0%

How important do you think it is that the AVMA offer continuing education to veterinary professionals? 3340 4.17 .950 -.979 .042 .300 .085

How well do you think the AVMA is doing in providing continuing education to veterinary professionals? 2857 3.60 .909 -.346 .046 -.005 .092 14.5%

15



N MeanStd.

Deviation


How important do you think it is that AVMA provide you with the opportunity to influence decision-makers inside the profession?

3340 4.15 .795 -.718 .042 .358 .085

How well do you think the AVMA is doing in providing you with the opportunity to influence decision-makers inside the profession?

2433 2.85 1.040 -.060 .050 -.530 .099 27.2%

How important do you think it is that AVMA provide opportunities (employment and/or volunteer involvement) to be involved in determining AVMA policies?

3340 4.03 .815 -.587 .042 .207 .085

How well do you think the AVMA is doing in providing you with opportunities to be involved in determining AVMA policies?

2436 2.95 1.004 -.046 .050 -.396 .099 27.1%

How important do you think it is that the AVMA keep track of state issues or trends that could affect the profession?

3340 4.01 .897 -.566 .042 -.332 .085

How well do you think the AVMA is doing at keeping you informed about state issues or trends that could affect the profession?

2771 3.09 .943 -.170 .047 -.126 .093 17.0%

How important do you think it is that AVMA provides individualized member services (e.g. career services, responding to emails and phone calls)?

3340 3.98 .857 -.536 .042 -.101 .085

How would you rate the quality of individualized member services offered by the AVMA? 2099 3.68 .882 -.802 .053 .933 .107 37.2%

How important do you think it is that AVMA makes efforts to obtain federal or state funding to support research in veterinary medicine?

3340 3.97 .973 -.663 .042 -.232 .085

16


How would you rate the efforts AVMA is making toward obtaining federal or state funding to support research in veterinary medicine?

1375 3.31 .882 -.567 .066 .352 .132 58.8%


N MeanStd.

Deviation


How important do you think it is that AVMA leadership represents the diversity of its members? 3340 3.94 1.002 -.851 .042 .352 .085

How well do you think AVMA leadership represents the diversity of its members? 2380 2.76 1.057 -.030 .050 -.564 .100 28.7%

How important do you think it is that AVMA provide members with a professional journal? 3340 3.91 .997 -.684 .042 -.062 .085

How would you rate the two professional journals offered by the AVMA? 3195 4.08 .843 -.866 .043 .900 .087 4.3%

How important do you think it is that the AVMA keep you informed about international issues or trends that could affect the profession?

3340 3.90 .864 -.383 .042 -.324 .085

How well do you think the AVMA is doing at keeping you informed about international issues or trends that could affect the profession?

2596 3.08 .901 -.199 .048 .117 .096 22.3%

How important do you think it is that AVMA provide you with the opportunity to influence decision-makers outside the profession?

3340 3.84 .955 -.506 .042 -.315 .085

How well do you think the AVMA is doing in providing you with the opportunity to influence decision-makers outside the profession?

2190 2.93 .971 -.103 .052 -.271 .105 34.4%

How important do you think it is that the AVMA provide the information you need to help grow your practice or improve your compensation?

3340 3.82 .974 -.577 .042 -.039 .085

How well do you think the AVMA's is doing at providing useful information for growing your practice or improving your compensation?

2489 2.82 .916 -.107 .049 -.176 .098 25.5%

How important do you think it is that AVMA offer an Annual Convention? 3340 3.80 1.007 -.513 .042 -.335 .085

How would you rate the AVMA Annual Convention? 1788 3.99 .834 -.730 .058 .671 .116 46.5%

17


N MeanStd.

Deviation

Skewness Std. Error Kurtosis Std. Error Don't

Know

How important do you think it is that AVMA provide opportunities to use your professional skills to give back to the community through programs such as disaster services, international service and community outreach?

3340 3.77 .894 -.362 .042 -.172 .085

How well do you think the AVMA is doing at providing opportunities to use your professional skills to give back to the community through programs such as disaster services, international service and community outreach?

2266 3.15 .893 -.237 .051 -.001 .103 32.2%

How important do you think it is that AVMA offer you opportunities to network/develop communities within the profession?

3340 3.68 .953 -.311 .042 -.393 .085

How well do you think the AVMA is doing at offering you opportunities to network/develop communities within the profession?

2406 2.98 .926 .004 .050 -.106 .100 28.0%

How important do you think it is that AVMA have a charitable/philanthropic arm (e.g. American Veterinary Medical Foundation) in support of the medical care and wellbeing of animals?

3340 3.65 1.000 -.372 .042 -.365 .085

How well do you think the AVMA is doing in providing charitable/philanthropic support for the medical care and wellbeing of animals?

1926 3.44 .845 -.239 .056 .365 .111 42.3%

How important do you think it is that AVMA provide assistance in obtaining health insurance? 3340 3.54 1.178 -.450 .042 -.613 .085

How well do you think the AVMA is doing, since the new Affordable Care Act of 2010, in providing you assistance in obtaining health insurance?

1492 2.40 1.179 .385 .063 -.838 .127 55.3%

18


N MeanStd.

Deviation


Know

Importance-Performance: AVMA offer an Annual Convention 1788 -.0179 .91234 .044 .058 1.022 .116

Importance-Performance: AVMA offer continuing education to veterinary professionals 2857 .6412 1.01067 .207 .046 .588 .092

Importance-Performance: AVMA provide opportunities to use your professional skills to give back to the community through programs such as disaster services, international service and community outreach

2266 .7515 1.09688 .499 .051 .275 .103

Importance-Performance: AVMA offer you opportunities to network/develop communities within the profession

2406 .8815 1.05034 .417 .050 .128 .100

Importance-Performance: AVMA works closely with allied associations 2079 .8951 .99642 .407 .054 .630 .107

Importance-Performance: AVMA keep you informed about international issues or trends that could affect the profession

2596 .8960 1.07734 .435 .048 .158 .096

Importance-performance: AVMA use various communication channels to reach out to its members 3014 .9005 1.08701 .314 .045 .412 .089

Importance-Performance: AVMA assures the quality of veterinary technician education through an accreditation program

1972 .9173 1.04333 .584 .055 .585 .110

Importance-Performance: AVMA provide guidelines and standards for veterinary professionals 3027 .9290 .93116 .616 .044 .559 .089

Importance-Performance: AVMA intervene to prevent legislation that could adversely affect the profession and practice

2811 .9367 .91464 .779 .046 1.139 .092

Importance-Performance: AVMA engages in activities to advance the veterinary profession, even when there is no gain personally

2537 .9720 .99029 .349 .049 .747 .097

19


N MeanStd.

Deviation


Know

Importance-Performance: AVMA keep track of state issues or trends that could affect the profession 2771 .9975 1.10218 .424 .047 .117 .093

Importance-Performance: AVMA keep you informed of national issues or trends that could affect the profession 3081 1.0487 .93154 .617 .044 .394 .088

Importance-Performance: AVMA assures the quality of veterinary medical education through accreditation and certification programs

2991 1.1133 1.10768 .783 .045 .377 .090

Importance-Performance: AVMA provide the information you need to help grow your practice or improve your compensation

2489 1.1406 1.20269 .322 .049 -.025 .098

Importance-Performance: AVMA provide you with the opportunity to influence decision-makers outside the profession

2190 1.1584 1.14064 .428 .052 -.102 .105

Importance-Performance: AVMA represent the veterinary profession to federal and state legislators and regulators

2436 1.1741 1.15959 .317 .050 -.063 .099

Importance-Performance: AVMA take a strong public position on issues (e.g. animal welfare, drug compounding) related to veterinary medicine

3045 1.2361 1.09341 .345 .044 .060 .089

Importance-Performance: AVMA protects the reputation of the veterinary profession 2961 1.3313 1.07741 .380 .045 -.023 .090

Importance-Performance: AVMA provide leadership to lead the profession into the future 2814 1.3671 1.07318 .463 .046 -.044 .092

Importance-Performance: AVMA advocate for the best interests of the profession 2883 1.3836 1.07422 .441 .046 .294 .091

Importance-Performance: AVMA speak for the veterinary profession to the general public 2840 1.3852 1.13489 .313 .046 -.307 .092

Importance-Performance: AVMA provide you with the opportunity to influence decision-makers inside the profession

2433 1.4196 1.21844 .334 .050 -.402 .099

Importance-Performance: AVMA provide assistance in obtaining health insurance 1492 1.5114 1.61166 -.121 .063 -.618 .127

Importance-Performance: AVMA promote the 2918 1.5963 1.17225 .069 .045 -.263 .091

20


veterinary profession to the general publicImportance-Performance: AVMA offer solutions to enhance the economic conditions of the profession 2668 1.8313 1.27596 .058 .047 -.693 .095

21


Results

The first steps of the analysis were to identify the 11 service areas or “buckets” in the survey and gauge their relative importance to all respondents. Some of the buckets contained multiple questions, and in this case a representative question is used to represent the bucket in the analysis. As this process for determining the principle factors that affect member satisfaction becomes better understood, a specific question will be used to indicate expectations and perceived performance about the entire bucket. For each bucket the representative question is highlighted.

Advocacy and Policy

How important do you think it is that AVMA advocate for the best interests of the profession?

How important do you think it is that AVMA engages in activities to advance the veterinary profession, even when there may not be an obvious tangible benefit to you personally?

How important do you think it is that AVMA represent the veterinary profession to federal and state legislators and regulators?

How important do you think it is that AVMA works closely with allied associations (e.g., American Association of Feline Practitioners, American Association of Bovine Practitioners) of the veterinary profession?

How important do you think it is that the AVMA protects the reputation of the veterinary profession?

How important do you think it is that the AVMA intervene to prevent legislation that could adversely affect the profession and practice?

How important do you think it is that AVMA provide guidelines and standards for veterinary professionals?

How important do you think it is that AVMA makes efforts to obtain federal or state funding to support research in veterinary medicine?

How important do you think it is that the AVMA take a strong public position on issues (e.g. animal welfare, drug compounding) related to veterinary medicine?

How important do you think it is that AVMA provide you with the opportunity to influence decision-makers outside the profession?

How important do you think it is that AVMA provide you with the opportunity to influence decision-makers inside the profession?

How important do you think it is that AVMA use various communication channels to reach out to its members?

How important do you think it is that the AVMA keep you informed about international issues or trends that could affect the profession?

How important do you think it is that the AVMA keep you informed of national issues or trends that could affect the profession?

22


How important do you think it is that the AVMA keep track of state issues or trends that could affect the profession?

Economics and Finance


How important do you think it is that the AVMA provide the information you need to help grow your practice or improve your compensation?

Convention

How important do you think it is that AVMA offer an Annual Convention? How often have you attended an AVMA Annual Convention in the past?

Member Services


How important do you think it is that AVMA provide opportunities to use your professional skills to give back to the community through programs such as disaster services, international service and community outreach?

How important do you think it is that AVMA have a charitable/philanthropic arm (e.g. American Veterinary Medical Foundation) in support of the medical care and wellbeing of animals?

How important do you think it is that AVMA provide opportunities (employment and/or volunteer involvement) to be involved in determining AVMA policies?

Insurance

How important do you think it is that being a member of the AVMA gives you access to group liability insurance?

How important do you think it is that AVMA provide assistance in obtaining health insurance?

Leadership

How important do you think it is that the AVMA provide leadership to lead the profession into the future?

How important do you think it is that AVMA leadership represents the diversity of its members?

23


Accreditation and Certification


How important do you think it is that AVMA assures the quality of veterinary technician education through an accreditation program?

Public Value

How important do you think it is that AVMA speak for the veterinary profession to the general public?

How important do you think it is that AVMA promote the veterinary profession to the general public?

Publications (Journal)

How important do you think it is that AVMA provide members with a professional journal?

Continuing Education/ Professional Development

How important do you think it is that AVMA offer continuing education to veterinary professionals?

Networking

How important do you think it is that AVMA offer you opportunities to network/ develop communities within the profession?

Based on these representative questions for each of the buckets a set of density function diagrams have been developed to visually compare the distribution of responses to the questions pertaining to the dependent and independent variables. For the two dependent variables the responses differ markedly. The “active” measure of satisfaction, encouraging a fellow veterinarian to join AVMA, the distribution of responses is skewed left and very flat. The preponderance of respondents is sufficiently satisfied to encourage a fellow veterinarian to join AVMA. On the other hand, the passive form of satisfaction, the value you get for your $320 membership, is kurtotic and more normally distributed around a middle response of “some value for the money.” Taken together, the two might suggest that in general members feel there is sufficient value to warrant the encouragement of others to join.

24


Not at all likely Slightly Moderately Very Extremely likely0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

How likely will you be to encourage a fellow veterinar-ian to join as a member or renew their membership?

No value for the money

Very little value for the money

Some value for the money

A lot of value for the money

A great deal of value for the

money

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

How would you evaluate the value you get from the programs/services offered through the AVMA as com-

pared to the cost of $320 for the membership?

The next set of density diagrams is for the independent variables. Each set is comprised of two diagrams that split the variables by type of distribution. The first diagram in each set of diagrams contains those variables that had responses that were skewed strongly left and kurtotic while the second set is more normally distributed and flat. Thus, the first set illustrates the distribution of responses for buckets that are most important, have higher performance, or better balance of perceived performance to importance.

25


RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF BUCKETS

Not at a

ll importa

nt

Not very

importa

nt

Somew

hat im

portant

Very im

portant

Extrem

ely im

portant

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000Advocacy

Accreditation

Leadership

Promote Value

Economics

Continuing Edu-cation

Not at a

ll importa

nt

Not very

importa

nt

Somew

hat im

portant

Very im

portant

Extrem

ely im

portant

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

Journal

Member Services

Convention

Insurance

Network

26


RELATIVE PERFORMANCE OF BUCKETS

Not well at all Not very well Moderately well

Very well Extremely well0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

Journals

Accreditation

Convention

Continuing Education

Member Services

Not well at all Not very well Moderately well

Very well Extremely well

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000 Advocacy

Leadership

Promote Value

Network

Insurance

Economics

27


IMPORTANCE-PERFORMANCE OF BUCKETS

-4.00 -3.00 -2.00 -1.00 .00 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.000

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

JOURNAL

CONTINUING EDUCATION

CONVENTION

MEMBER SERVICES

NETWORKING

Importance-Performance

Resp

onse

s

-4.00 -3.00 -2.00 -1.00 .00 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.000

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

PROMOTE VALUE

LEADERSHIP

ADVOCACY

ECONOMICS

INSURANCE

ACCREDI-TATION

Importance- Performance

Resp

onse

s

While the descriptive statistics and diagrams indicate what membership believes AVMA should be emphasizing and the level of performance for each that they believe AVMA is producing, the next step moves to understand the association between these expectations and perceptions of performance and the level of satisfaction.

Next, we conducted correlations among the buckets to ensure that all nested questions within the buckets were correlated. The results of these correlations are reported in the Appendix I. The correlations among the buckets with respect to members expectations are generally low and do not pose a problem. There is a high correlation between Convention and Continuing Education and between Advocacy and Promote Value. As a

28


result of this high correlation, one of buckets in each highly-correlated pair may not exist in the model. The variable that explains the greatest variation in the mean response will reduce the importance of the second member of the correlated pair to add to the ability of the model to explain the variation. While the model will indicate which of the two highly-correlated pairs are more significant, the absence in the model of the second variable does not preclude its importance.

The high correlation in determining the variation in satisfaction associated with the variation in members’ perceptions of performance is considerably more problematic than in the previous case. Leadership and Economics are each highly correlated with seven of the other ten buckets; Advocacy and Networking are each highly correlated with six other buckets; Member Services and Promote Value each with five others, Continuing Education and Accreditation with three, and Convention and Insurance with one. Because Journal, Convention, and Insurance are not highly correlated with any more than one of the other buckets, they will be included in the model if they are statistically significant in explaining any of the variation in member satisfaction.

The correlations that exist between services in importance and performance spill over into the disconfirmation variable (importance-performance). Advocacy, Economics, Promote Value, Leadership, and Accreditation are highly correlated. Advocacy is strongly correlated with all four, Leadership with two others, and Economics and Promote Value with one other. Thus, it would be unlikely to find all five in a model together as independent variables. Relationship between satisfaction and measures of importance and performance

Using the responses to the representative questions for each bucket, the importance of each in explaining the variation in the member satisfaction is determined using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression. This process identifies those buckets that have the greatest (most statistically significant) ability to explain the differences between the actual measure of satisfaction indicated by each respondent and the mean of all respondents’ satisfaction measure. There are six equations based on two measures of member satisfaction and three sets of responses as described in the Conceptual Analysis section above. The six equations (or functions) are as follows:

Encourage vets to join/renew membership= f(Importance of AVMA Services) Encourage vets to join/renew membership= f(Performance of AVMA Services) Encourage vets to join/renew membership= f(Importance - Performance of AVMA

Services) Value of Membership dues paid = f(Importance of AVMA Services) Value of Membership dues paid =f (Performance of AVMA Services) Value of Membership dues paid =f (Importance - Performance of AVMA Services)

In addition to the traditional OLS analysis that determines the ability of each of the services to explain the variation in satisfaction of members, we also identify the services that are important in explaining the negative (mean response is greater than individual

29


response) and positive (mean response is less than individual response) variation. This helps to explore how each service (bucket of services) contributes to either reduced or increased member satisfaction.

IMPORTANCE Y (Y-Ẏ) > 0 (Y-Ẏ) < 0

Coeff t Signif Coeff t Signif Coeff t Signif

Convention .186 10.385 .000 .056 4.824 .000 .111 6.281 .000

The top left cell indicates “IMPORTANCE” indicating that this OLS model is the response to the questions pertaining to “how important this [bucket] is to you.” The column of “Y” indicates the relationship between the bucket to the left, “Convention,” and level of satisfaction. The column “(Y-Ẏ) > 0” indicates the relationship between the importance of the Convention bucket and the variation in the responses that were greater than the mean level of satisfaction indicated by all members. The column “(Y-Ẏ) < 0” indicates the relationship between the importance of the Convention bucket and the variation in the responses that were less than the mean level of satisfaction indicated by all members. Thus, the three columns indicate the importance of Convention in explaining the variation in satisfaction, the variation in positive satisfaction, and the variation in negative satisfaction, respectively.

The t-statistic is a measure of the degree to which the bucket in question affects satisfaction. While the coefficient of .186 in the example above indicates the relationship between the importance members have for the Convention and the level of satisfaction they express with AVMA, the t-statistic indicates that the “importance of the Convention’ explains a great deal of the variation in satisfaction and the probability that the coefficient (the relationship it has with satisfaction) is not zero exceeds 99.999% probability. A t-statistic that exceeds 1.96 indicates that there is a 95% probability that the relationship between two variables is not zero.

Of equal relevance is “(Y-Ẏ) > 0” and “(Y-Ẏ) < 0” which indicate the relationship between the importance of the Convention and positive satisfaction and negative satisfaction, respectfully. Thus, members who rate the importance of the Convention below the mean ranking are associated with those who express a satisfaction with AVMA that is less than the mean level. The association of negatives (less than mean importance and less than mean satisfaction) is greater than the association of positives (more than mean importance and more than mean satisfaction) as indicated by their respective t-statistic.

The importance of this distinction is that to improve member satisfaction through the Convention bucket will be more impactful if the focus is on improving those members’ expectations, with less than mean satisfaction in AVMA, of the Convention. Unless the

30


cost of the effort to improve member expectation of the Convention for those with positive association is half than that of those with negative association, the best return on investment to improve member satisfaction through increasing member expectations of the convention would be to focus efforts on members that have a below mean level of satisfaction with AVMA.

The coefficient may be either positive or negative. The positive coefficient expresses the relationship where, as the bucket variable increases in importance the level of satisfaction increases. The negative coefficient expresses the reverse, as the bucket variable increases (or decreases) in importance the level of satisfaction decreases (or increases).

In the first table below, five buckets have a statistically significant relationship with member satisfaction while only one is negative.

Finally, two other statistical indicators are provided at the bottom of each table, F statistic and the R square. The F statistic is not unlike the t-statistic in that it provides a relative measure of significance or probability that the set of variables in the model have a relationship with satisfaction of the members that is different from zero. The R square indicates the amount of variation in member satisfaction that is explained by the buckets included in the model. In the first column the model explains 6.6 percent of all variation in satisfaction (difference between the mean level and the individual level).

For each set of models (e.g. the set Encourage vets to join/renew membership= f(Importance of AVMA Services), = f(Performance of AVMA Services), = f(Importance - Performance of AVMA Services), the R square is greatest for the model pertaining to performance. Thus, how well AVMA is perceived to perform is more important in explaining the variation in satisfaction than either level of importance or the gap between importance and performance. Results by gender are presented in Appendix II. Generally, both males and females responded similarly; however, some significant differences were found.

The tables below with the detailed information on the functional forms of the Satisfaction models are arranged by set. The first set is for the active form of the dependent variable (encourage a fellow veterinarian to join), followed by the set for the passive form of the dependent variable (value you get from the programs/services). For each set, the model Satisfaction = f(Importance of AVMA Services) is provided first followed by f(Performance) and then f(Importance - Performance).

31


DEPENDENT VAR: How likely would you be to encourage a fellow veterinarian to join as a member or renew membership in the AVMA?



(Constant) .477 3.134 .002 3.144 26.850 .000 1.773 16.187 .000How important do you think it is that AVMA offer an Annual Convention? .186 10.385 .000 .056 4.824 .000 .111 6.281 .000

How important do you think it is that AVMA speak for the veterinary profession to the general public? .170 7.158 .000 .043 2.511 .012

How important do you think it is that AVMA provide members with a professional journal? .128 7.094 .000

How important do you think it is that the AVMA provide leadership to lead the profession into the future? .177 6.632 .000 .098 5.252 .000


.167 6.294 .000 .107 4.678 .000

How important do you think it is that the AVMA offer solutions to enhance the economic conditions of the profession? -.046 -2.125 .034

How important do you think it is that AVMA advocate for the best interests of the profession? .072 3.105 .002


.028 2.104 .035

F statistic 29.792 110.530 38.090

R Square .066 .166 .058

32


PERFORMANCE Y (Y-Ẏ) > 0 (Y-Ẏ) < 0


(Constant) .835 4.124 .000 4.068 34.517 .000 1.550 9.104 .000How well do you think the AVMA is doing at providing leadership to lead the profession into the future? .300 5.733 .000 .140 4.292 .000 .215 4.173 .000

How would you rate the quality of individualized member services offered by the AVMA? .278 5.440 .000 .183 3.246 .001

How well do you think the AVMA advocates for the best interests of the profession? .179 3.400 .001

How would you rate the two professional journals offered by the AVMA? .139 3.087 .002

F statistic 91.923 18.423 24.282

R Square .433 .051 .255

IMPORTANCE - PERFORMANCE Y (Y-Ẏ) > 0 (Y-Ẏ) < 0


Constant 4.607 63.444 .000 4.609 129.970 .000 3.006 30.601 .000

Importance-Performance: Economics -.107 -2.902 .004

Importance-Performance: Advocacy -.238 -5.362 .000 -.112 -2.717 .007

Importance-Performance: Individual Member Services -.246 -5.543 .000 -.170 -3.832 .000

Importance-Performance: Accreditation -.058 -2.057 .040

F statistic 49.976 4.230 14.540

R Square .237 .012 .170

33


DEPENDENT VAR:How would you evaluate the value you get from the programs/services offered through the AVMA compared to the cost of $320 for the membership?




How important do you think it is that the AVMA provide leadership to lead the profession into the future? .140 6.531 .000 .068 3.197 .001 .035 2.358 .018

How important do you think it is that AVMA provide members with a professional journal? .075 5.194 .000 .040 3.849 .000



.097 4.577 .000 .051 3.470 .001


.055 3.333 .001 .049 3.205 .001

How important do you think it is that the AVMA offer solutions to enhance the economic conditions of the profession? -.055 -3.134 .002

F statistic 67.502 14.442 36.112

R Square .124 .042 .072

PERFORMANCE Y (Y-Ẏ) > 0 (Y-Ẏ) < 0

34



Constant .663 3.765 .000 3.827 23.332 .000 1.426 11.850 .000How well do you think the AVMA is doing at providing leadership to lead the profession into the future? .239 5.845 .000

.1222.809 .005 .127 4.566 .000


How would you rate the AVMA Annual Convention? .150 3.513 .000 .106 3.680 .000


.134 3.123 .002


.065 2.025 .043


.066 2.556 .011

F statistic 62.416 7.889 38.579

R Square .394 .040 .346

IMPORTANCE - PERFORMANCE Y (Y-Ẏ) > 0 (Y-Ẏ) < 0


(Constant) 3.860 59.450 0.000 4.328 70.844 0.000 2.961 65.669 0.000

Importance-Performance: Advocacy -0.174 -4.487 0.000 -0.102 -4.362 0.000

Importance-Performance: Individual member services -0.172 -4.398 0.000 -0.112 -4.433 0.000

Importance-Performance: Continuing Education -0.126 -3.099 0.002

Importance-Performance: Economics -0.087 -2.710 0.007

F statistic 32.172 0.944 27.439

R Square 0.211 0.055 0.157

35


Allied Association members were also compared to non-Allied Association members in their responses to both expectations and perceived performance of specific AVMA services. In all cases where the responses of the two groups were significantly different, the non-Allied Association members mean response was higher. There were four services (continuing education, health insurance, networking, and the annual convention) where Allied Association members indicated a significantly lower level of importance than non-Allied Association members, and two services (networking, leadership) where there perception of AVMA performance was significantly less than the non-Allied Association members.

The difference in the responses by type of member was also evaluated with the evaluation indicating only a significant difference between Volunteer members and all other members.

36


Services with significantly different levels indicated by Allied Association members and non-Allied Association Members

Allied Assoc Member Non Allied Assoc Member

Mean N Std. Deviation Kurtosis Skewness Mean N Std.

Deviation Kurtosis Skewness

How important do you think it is that the AVMA offer continuing education to veterinary professionals? 3.99 887 .990 -.233 -.702 4.25 2203 .924 .708 -1.136

How important do you think it is that AVMA provide assistance in obtaining health insurance? 3.41 887 1.195 -.715 -.345 3.64 2203 1.143 -.513 -.512


3.53 887 .939 -.331 -.206 3.71 2203 .956 -.400 -.347

How important do you think it is that AVMA offer an Annual Convention? 3.68 887 1.044 -.547 -.379 3.82 2203 .989 -.215 -.549


2.84 645 .924 -.060 .046 3.01 1529 .918 -.102 -.014

How well do you think the AVMA is doing at providing leadership to lead the profession into the future?

2.99 783 1.008 -.318 -.285 3.14 1786 .977 -.060 -.338

37


Services with significantly different levels indicated by Volunteer members and non-Volunteer Members

I am currently an AVMA volunteer I have never volunteered for AVMA

Mean N Std. Deviation Kurtosis Skewness Mean N Std.

Deviation Kurtosis Skewness

How important do you think it is that the AVMA provide leadership to lead the profession into the future?

4.68 282 .556 6.781 -2.080 4.40 2458 .719 .932 -1.050

How important do you think it is that AVMA speak for the veterinary profession to the general public?

4.60 282 .636 3.485 -1.673 4.33 2458 .781 .727 -1.016


2.86 265 .904 .079 -.061 2.50 1982 .964 -.422 .102

How important do you think it is that AVMA offer an Annual Convention? 4.04 282 .979 -.236 -.727 3.71 2458 1.022 -.391 -.454


3.87 282 .922 .030 -.552 3.56 2458 .943 -.332 -.238

How would you rate the quality of individualized member services offered by the AVMA?

3.96 233 .811 1.880 -.955 3.63 1565 .892 .740 -.752

How well do you think the AVMA is doing in providing continuing education to veterinary professionals?

3.81 267 .854 .218 -.455 3.54 2165 .927 -.063 -.320

How important do you think it is that AVMA provide assistance in obtaining health insurance?

3.16 282 1.271 -.892 -.209 3.52 2458 1.171 -.617 -.425

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2.81 130 1.195 -.855 .075 2.33 1099 1.166 -.856 .421


3.19 260 .918 -.013 -.029 2.89 1714 .911 -.121 -.003

ImpPerf_ContinEd .3670 267 .89701 1.701 .625 .6647 2165 1.04265 .538 .179ImpPerf_PersProfInsur .8769 130 1.51997 -.312 .131 1.5523 1099 1.60309 -.742 -.086ImpPerf_IndividualMemServ .2275 233 1.05647 1.273 .662 .5118 1565 1.03427 .822 .647ImpPerf_Economics 1.5585 265 1.21752 -.033 -.131 1.8426 1982 1.27669 -.753 .076How well do you think the AVMA advocates for the best interests of the profession?

3.55 272 .955 .263 -.506 3.28 2142 .984 -.054 -.447

How well do you think the AVMA is doing at providing leadership to lead the profession into the future?

3.32 276 .991 -.008 -.336 3.07 2076 .988 -.179 -.313


4.37 282 .838 1.667 -1.358 4.24 2458 .838 .464 -.939


3.78 275 1.037 .311 -.817 3.55 2185 1.065 .073 -.698

How would you rate the two professional journals offered by the AVMA?

4.19 280 .798 2.015 -1.129 4.05 2427 .860 .666 -.806

ImpPerf_Accredit .8800 275 .99825 .762 .930 1.0989 2185 1.09750 .456 .800How important do you think it is that AVMA provide members with a professional journal?

4.06 282 .953 .683 -.934 3.88 2458 1.009 -.126 -.651

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Finally, respondents were asked to rank the 11 sets of services by giving a score of 1 for most important and a score of 11 for least important. The mean values of the ranking for the 11 set of services were as follows:

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Buckets N Mean

Advocate for the best interest of the profession with legislators and regulators 3340 3.4Provide strong, representative leadership for the future of the profession 3340 4Promote the value of the profession to the general public 3340 4.33Provide accreditation and certification of veterinary medical universities and schools 3340 4.41

Study and Provide solutions for ensuring the economic viability of the profession 3340 4.86

Provide access or assistance in obtaining personal and professional insurance 3340 6.61Offer continuing education 3340 6.79

Provide individual member services (career services, personalized support, etc.) 3340 7

Offer a professional journal 3340 7.69Offer a national convention 3340 8.39Provide networking opportunities 3340 8.51


Discussion

The idea that an individual member gains satisfaction from their perception that a specific service is important can be easily dismissed. Indeed, while the model that explains the variation in satisfaction as a function of “Importance” identifies 7 buckets as significant, the total amount of variation in satisfaction that these buckets explain as a group is 6.6% (active) and 12.6% (passive). As noted in the conceptual analysis section, when expectations are developed from the experience with performance, the two can provide the same indication of satisfaction. An interesting example of this is found for the bucket “Economic Viability of the Profession”. There is a significant but negative association between the importance of this service to members and their level of satisfaction. The more important a member ranks this bucket, the lower their satisfaction. Because members perceive that little has been done in what they indicate is a vital service area, their level of satisfaction declines and their expectations are greater.

There was considerable difference throughout every stage of the analysis between the two measures of satisfaction. The active form (encourage a friend to join) indicated a significantly greater mean level of satisfaction and was slightly skewed left with a large portion of respondents (roughly a third) indicating they were extremely likely to recommend AVMA to a friend. We have not looked into why there is a difference in satisfaction between the active and passive forms, why the services that are associated with the variation in their means are different, or which form provides a better measure of satisfaction. All of these questions should be answered, but may be more appropriately addressed over time through a time series, cross-sectional analysis rather than with this type of cross-section analysis alone.

The analysis presents a picture of two parts:1) a set of services that members see as valuable but less important than the level of performance that conforms to member expectations, and 2) a set that members see as vital that members perceive performance to be less than the level needed to meet their expectations. Two specific areas of service, Advocacy and Accreditation, were clearly identified as vital by members, with more than 75 percent of respondents indicating these were extremely important. The distribution of responses is skewed left and one-sided, a clear indication of importance. In addition, these two were ranked first and fourth by respondents in their relative rankings among the 11 service areas.

The two areas (Advocacy and Accreditation) represent a unique perception by members of the expectations and performance gap among the 11 service areas. Both are representative of the group of service areas where respondents generally agreed that there was a large gap between expectations and perceived performance. The mean measure of performance was near the center, “Moderately well,” and the distributions of responses around the mean were normally distributed. This is in stark contrast to the distribution of

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responses for expectation that indicated a median response that these two service areas are extremely important. Thus, a large gap exists between members’ expectations and their perception of performance.

In evaluating the relationship between the expectation - performance gap and satisfaction, Advocacy had the highest coefficient for the passive form of satisfaction and the second highest for the active form. Accreditation was only significant in relation to associations with responses to satisfaction that exceeded the mean level of satisfaction for the active form of satisfaction. However, in an independent analysis of the association between either forms of satisfaction and Accreditation, there was a statistically significant relationship indicating an increase in satisfaction would occur as the gap between expectations and performance is reduced. The high correlation of members’ perceptions of performance among the various service areas excludes some of these variables from being used in the model to explain the variations in member satisfaction.

The high correlation among members perception of how well AVMA is performing in the set of services may suggest that the members overall perception of AVMA performance in general is a duality. Those services that are not vital are general meeting needs (are perceived at meeting acceptable levels), while for those that are vital, members perceive that AVMA is not meeting a minimum threshold of performance. This hypothesis gains weight in the analysis of the association between disconfirmation (importance minus performance) and member satisfaction. The strongest differences between expectation and performance exist in Economics (1.83), Promote Value (1.60), Advocacy (1.38), Leadership (1.37) and Accreditation (1.11). Note that for the Journal and Convention the value of disconfirmation was -0.14 and -0.018 respectively indicating that members perceive that AVMA is outperforming expectations in these two service areas. These two service areas have the lowest levels of expectations at 3.91 and 3.80, respectively from the independent evaluation by members, and are ranked as the 9th and 10th most important service areas in the overall ranking of the 11 service areas.

While Advocacy and Accreditation are two services areas that members indicate are vital and have a perceived need for improved performance, the service areas Journal and Convention represent the opposite side of the spectrum. Consider the point made in the introduction that the economic rationale for the existence of non-profits is to provide a collective membership with goods and services in a manner that minimizes the difference between their price and cost. Where this difference is unrecognizable from that of for-profits, the door is open to competition from profit maximizing enterprises that may be able to gain advantage by focusing on one objective. The veterinary medicine space is littered with networking, publication, and convention products and services while AVMA is the single provider for key advocacy and accreditation products and services.

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In addition, there are 6 buckets where the space is less clear in terms of who and what goods and services are available from other non-profits and for-profits. These buckets include Economics, Leadership, Member Services, Promote Value, Continuing Education, and I0nsurance.

Practical Implications

The analysis presented above represents a first start on identifying those services that require further investigation to determine exactly what members’ expectations are and developing performance criteria to measure how well those expectations are being met. Returning to the findings of the work by Robert Herman and David O. Renz, “We believe this study has three principal practical implications. First, for those NPOs whose stakeholders are telling them they are not doing well, investing in adopting or improving management practices may be a good idea.” Clearly, the AVMA membership has indicated a large gap exists between what they expect and what they are getting in service areas they view as vital. This certainly does not mean that AVMA needs to increase the amount of its current effort. Increasing the current effort level may provide no increase in member satisfaction if a) members don’t agree that the current work product meets their performance criteria or b) the members are not receiving sufficient information about current efforts to be able to evaluate the effort. Thus, without first understanding how that effort will translate into an increased perception of performance, simply increasing current levels of effort may not increase member satisfaction. To achieve increased satisfaction levels will require increased frequency of performance assessment, the exact finding by Herman and Renz, “A second, important finding of the study was that top performing non-profits (of the type reviewed) assess their performance frequently.”

The strategic management path that AVMA is currently pursuing will be necessary for the continued viability of the association, according to Herman and Renz, “It is in the interest of the NPO and its leadership to facilitate a dialogue with key stakeholders to surface and overtly identify the various performance criteria, outcome measures, and other constructions of effectiveness that sooner or later will become the basis for stakeholder judgments of the organization’s effectiveness. It will be important to integrate the externally mandated or prescribed evaluation criteria to the greatest degree possible with other key stakeholders’ goals and bases for judgment. This inclusive approach may seem overly demanding to the already overworked NPO executive, but the alternative is to leave the organization open to multiple and divergent perceptions that are likely to undercut the overall judgment of the organization’s effectiveness. Sooner or later, this judgment will affect the availability of the political, financial, and other resources essential to the organization’s survival.”

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This AVMA performance survey analysis begins a baseline for future comparison and establishes a process whereby members’ expectations and perception of AVMA performance might be used to define specific member value propositions, as well as specific performance indicators that enable AVMA leadership to have a continuous assessment of AVMA performance in maximizing those member value propositions with every dollar spent.

Of the 11 areas of service that we have examined, this analysis clearly indicates two of these service areas are “leaders,” areas that in a sense define AVMA. Thus, to maximize member satisfaction and ensure long-term viability, AVMA must provide the level of performance in these two service areas (Advocacy and Accreditation) that both meets the members’ expectations and does so in a way that members perceive as minimizing the difference between the price being charged for those services and the cost of providing them. Failing to do either opens the space to competitors, specifically for-profit competitors that are able to focus on specific objectives of key service areas.

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References

Hannsman, Henry B. , The Role of Nonprofit Enterprise , The Yale Law Journal, Vol 89, No. 5, April 1980

Herman, Robert D., David O. Renz, “Nonprofit Organizational Effectiveness: Contrasts Between Especially Effective and Less Effective Organizations, NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP, vol. 9, no. 1, Fall 1998

http://www.theoryofknowledge.info/

http://www.philosophypages.com/lg/e01.htm

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http://www.philosophypages.com/lg/e01.htm

http://www.theoryofknowledge.info/


Appendix I. Correlations between major areas (“buckets”).

Correlations- Importance

Advocacy

Speak on behalf of professio

n to public

Enhance Economic conditions

Convention NetworkIndividualized

member Services

Health Insurance

Provide Leadership Journal Accreditatio

n

Continuing

Education

Advocacy1 .401** .330** .175** .191** .201** .116** .373** .178** .274** .131**

.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .0003340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340

Speak on behalf of profession to public

.401** 1 .273** .201** .215** .213** .117** .396** .160** .232** .147**

.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000

3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340


.330** .273** 1 .172** .274** .225** .169** .320** .116** .185** .154**

.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .0003340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340

Convention.175** .201** .172** 1 .364** .223** .176** .238** .342** .205** .520**

.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .0003340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340

Network.191** .215** .274** .364** 1 .289** .220** .248** .221** .189** .355**

.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .0003340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340

Individualized member Services

.201** .213** .225** .223** .289** 1 .209** .238** .187** .174** .224**

.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .0003340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340

Health Insurance

.116** .117** .169** .176** .220** .209** 1 .106** .131** .110** .217**

.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .0003340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340

Provide Leadership

.373** .396** .320** .238** .248** .238** .106** 1 .218** .273** .145**

.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .0003340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340

Journal.178** .160** .116** .342** .221** .187** .131** .218** 1 .232** .248**

.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .0003340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340

Accreditation.274** .232** .185** .205** .189** .174** .110** .273** .232** 1 .191**

.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .0003340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340

46



.131** .147** .154** .520** .355** .224** .217** .145** .248** .191** 1.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .0003340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340 3340

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)

Correlations- Performance

Advocacy

Speak on behalf of professio

n to public

Enhance Economic condition

s

Convention

Network


Health Insuranc

e

Provide Leadershi

p

Journal

Accreditation


Advocacy

1 .608** .589** .291** .452** .460** .363** .665** .264** .506** .368**

.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 0.000 .000 .000 .000

2883 2648 2479 1607 2218 1934 1369 2592 2800 2690 2576

Speak on behalf of profession to public

.608** 1 .486** .236** .412** .409** .331** .540** .209** .354** .349**

.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000

2648 2840 2437 1603 2202 1909 1337 2553 2762 2632 2536


.589** .486** 1 .286** .435** .420** .410** .584** .240** .425** .359**

.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000

2479 2437 2668 1518 2097 1821 1305 2428 2600 2495 2401

Convention

.291** .236** .286** 1 .361** .338** .226** .328** .321** .257** .589**

.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000

1607 1603 1518 1788 1390 1261 834 1589 1765 1639 1720

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Network

.452** .412** .435** .361** 1 .423** .356** .471** .294** .330** .432**

.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000

2218 2202 2097 1390 2406 1694 1182 2176 2332 2240 2198


.460** .409** .420** .338** .423** 1 .362** .478** .303** .390** .385**

.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000

1934 1909 1821 1261 1694 2099 1071 1906 2056 1958 1931

Health Insurance

.363** .331** .410** .226** .356** .362** 1 .377** .215** .279** .284**

.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000

1369 1337 1305 834 1182 1071 1492 1325 1452 1396 1362

Provide Leadership

.665** .540** .584** .328** .471** .478** .377** 1 .283** .494** .407**

0.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000

2592 2553 2428 1589 2176 1906 1325 2814 2737 2624 2508

Journal

.264** .209** .240** .321** .294** .303** .215** .283** 1 .186** .307**

.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000

2800 2762 2600 1765 2332 2056 1452 2737 3195 2888 2787

Accreditation .506** .354** .425** .257** .330** .390** .279** .494** .186** 1 .323**

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.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000

2690 2632 2495 1639 2240 1958 1396 2624 2888 2991 2618


.368** .349** .359** .589** .432** .385** .284** .407** .307** .323** 1

.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000

2576 2536 2401 1720 2198 1931 1362 2508 2787 2618 2857

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

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IMPORTANCE- PERFORMANCE (Correlations)Advocac

y Promote Value Economics Convention

Networking

Individual Member Services

Insurance Leadership Journal Accreditation Continuing

Education

Advocacy1 .492** .517** .024 .250** .275** .242** .540** .070** .404** .154**

.000 .000 .339 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .0002883 2648 2479 1607 2218 1934 1369 2592 2800 2690 2576

Promote Value

.492** 1 .398** .085** .273** .257** .217** .422** .097** .232** .174**

.000 .000 .001 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .0002648 2840 2437 1603 2202 1909 1337 2553 2762 2632 2536

Economics.517** .398** 1 .059* .294** .292** .284** .461** .059** .342** .161**

.000 .000 .021 .000 .000 .000 .000 .003 .000 .0002479 2437 2668 1518 2097 1821 1305 2428 2600 2495 2401

Convention.024 .085** .059* 1 .168** .091** .046 .036 .236** .071** .312**

.339 .001 .021 .000 .001 .188 .152 .000 .004 .0001607 1603 1518 1788 1390 1261 834 1589 1765 1639 1720

Networking.250** .273** .294** .168** 1 .313** .207** .258** .132** .202** .271**

.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .0002218 2202 2097 1390 2406 1694 1182 2176 2332 2240 2198

Individual Member Services

.275** .257** .292** .091** .313** 1 .265** .307** .109** .218** .215**

.000 .000 .000 .001 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .0001934 1909 1821 1261 1694 2099 1071 1906 2056 1958 1931

Insurance.242** .217** .284** .046 .207** .265** 1 .214** .110** .205** .180**

.000 .000 .000 .188 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .0001369 1337 1305 834 1182 1071 1492 1325 1452 1396 1362

Leadership.540** .422** .461** .036 .258** .307** .214** 1 .063** .369** .140**

.000 .000 .000 .152 .000 .000 .000 .001 .000 .0002592 2553 2428 1589 2176 1906 1325 2814 2737 2624 2508

Journal.070** .097** .059** .236** .132** .109** .110** .063** 1 .100** .203**

.000 .000 .003 .000 .000 .000 .000 .001 .000 .0002800 2762 2600 1765 2332 2056 1452 2737 3195 2888 2787

Accreditation

.404** .232** .342** .071** .202** .218** .205** .369** .100** 1 .169**

.000 .000 .000 .004 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .0002690 2632 2495 1639 2240 1958 1396 2624 2888 2991 2618


.154** .174** .161** .312** .271** .215** .180** .140** .203** .169** 1.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .0002576 2536 2401 1720 2198 1931 1362 2508 2787 2618 2857

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Appendix II. Member Satisfaction functions by gender

MALESDEPENDENT VAR: q100: How likely would you be to encourage a fellow veterinarian to join as a member or renew membership in the AVMA?

IMPORTANCE Y Y-Y MEAN>0 Y-Y MEAN<0Coeff t Sig Coeff t Sig Coeff t Sig


How important do you think it is that the AVMA provide leadership to lead the profession into the future? .217 5.694 .000 .142 5.440 .000 .075 2.157 .031

How important do you think it is that AVMA speak for the veterinary profession to the general public? .177 4.896 .000



.122 3.268 .001 .122 3.414 .001


F statistic 79.303 26.495 18.298R Square 0.216 0.079 0.099

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PERFORMANCE Y Y-Y MEAN>0 Y-Y MEAN<0Coeff t Sig Coeff t Sig Coeff t Sig

(Constant) 1.049 4.904 .000 3.981 25.293 .000 1.428 6.041 .000How well do you think the AVMA is doing at providing leadership to lead the profession into the future? .338 4.555 .000 0.165 3.836 .000


How well do you think the AVMA advocates for the best interests of the profession? .269 3.425 .001

How well do you think the AVMA speaks for the veterinary profession to the general public? -.193 -2.870 .004


.167 2.416 .016


.257 2.831 .006


IMPORTANCE-PERFORMANCE Y Y-Y MEAN>0 Y-Y MEAN<0Coeff t Sig Coeff t Sig Coeff t Sig

(Constant) 4.665 45.319 .000 4.611 122.683 0 3.010 21.199 .000Importance minus performance: advocacy -.357 -5.422 .000 -.137 -2.161 .034ImpPerf_IndividualMemServ -.218 -3.714 .000 -.217 -3.644 .000ImpPerf_Economics -.180 -3.596 .000ImpPerf_PromoteVal .202 3.351 .001ImpPerf_ContinEd -.170 -2.656 .008 -0.133 -3.024 .003F statistic 23.778 9.147 12.946

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R Square 0.307 0.046 0.249

DEPENDENT VAR:


IMPORTANCE Y Y-Y MEAN>0 Y-Y MEAN<0

Coeff T Signif Coeff T Signif Coeff T Signif

(Constant) .463 2.654 .008 3.500 20.661 .000 1.693 14.508 .000

How important do you think it is that AVMA offer an Annual Convention? .140 6.196 .000 .082 4.912 .000





.083 3.236 .001 .064 2.619 .009


.092 2.922 .004 .068 3.089 .002

F statistic 51.634 9.518 23.806

R Square 0.178 0.039 0.09

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PERFORMANCE Y Y-Y MEAN>0 Y-Y MEAN<0

Coeff T Signif Coeff T Signif Coeff T Signif

(Constant) .672 2.982 .003 3.945 32.424 0 1.295 8.162 .000

How well do you think the AVMA is doing at providing leadership to lead the profession into the future? .226 4.067 .000


.243 4.005 .000 .170 3.821 .000


How would you rate the AVMA Annual Convention? .124 2.128 .034 .089 2.168 .032

How well do you think the AVMA is doing since the new affordable Care Act of 2010, in providing you assistance in obtaining health insurance?

0.122 3.197 .002

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.086 2.545 .012

F statistic 52.503 10.222 26.841

R Square 0.438 0.086 0.218

IMPORTANCE- PERFORMANCE Y Y-Y MEAN>0 Y-Y MEAN<0Coeff T Signif Coeff T Signif Coeff T Signif

(Constant) 3.823 45.937 .000 4.338 96.867 .000 2.951 48.661 0

Importance minus performance: advocacy -.235 -4.755 .000 -.091 -2.769 .006ImpPerf_ContinEd -.180 -3.157 .002 -.143 -2.471 .015ImpPerf_IndividualMemServ -.152 -2.971 .003 -0.128 -3.91 0F statistic 20.807 6.107R Square 0.188 0.054

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FEMALESDEPENDENT VAR: q100: How likely would you be to encourage a fellow veterinarian to join as a member or renew membership in the AVMA?

IMPORTANCE Y Y-Y MEAN>0 Y-Y MEAN<0Coef

f t Sig Coeff t Sig Coeff t Sig



.215 5.725 .000 .079 2.577 .010





.063 2.314 .021 .047 2.721 .007


-.070 -2.313 .021



56


PERFORMANCE Y Y-Y MEAN>0 Y-Y MEAN<0Coef


(Constant) .994 3.065 .002 4.311 24.160 .000 2.111 13.762 .000How would you rate the quality of individualized member services offered by the AVMA? .275 3.352 .001

How well do you think the AVMA is doing at providing leadership to lead the profession into the future? .240 3.081 .002 0.241 4.351 .000

How well do you think the AVMA advocates for the best interests of the profession? .182 2.299 .023 .162 3.354 .001

How would you rate the two professional journals offered by the AVMA? .147 2.151 .033


-.120 -3.233 .002


IMPORTANCE-PERFORMANCE Y Y-Y MEAN>0 Y-Y MEAN<0Coef


(Constant) 4.492 47.082 .000 4.573 70.765 .000 2.986 24.980 .000ImpPerf_Individual Member Service -.260 -3.904 .000Importance minus performance: Advocacy -.256 -4.547 .000 -.111 -2.380 .019ImpPerf_Personal Professional Insurance .093 3.425 .001ImpPerf-Representative Leadership -0.136 -2.732 0.008F statistic 26.376 6.987 7.464R Square 0.201 0.087 0.107

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DEPENDENT VAR:How would you evaluate the value you get from the programs/services offered through the AVMA as compared to the cost of $320 for the membership?

IMPORTANCE Y Y-Y MEAN>0 Y-Y MEAN<0Coef

f T Signif Coeff T Signif Coeff T Signif

(Constant) 1.326 7.821 .000 3.708 40.853 .000 2.054 20.992 .000How important do you think it is that AVMA offer an Annual Convention? .129 6.946 .000 .051 3.047 .002 .072 5.316 .000

How important do you think it is that the AVMA provide leadership to lead the profession into the future? .114 4.061 .000



.107 3.709 .000 .049 2.505 .012



-.059 -2.581 .010


.053 2.935 .003


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PERFORMANCE Y Y-Y MEAN>0 Y-Y MEAN<0Coef


(Constant) .638 2.234 .027 4.070 8.174 .000 1.340 6.788 .000How well do you think the AVMA is doing at providing leadership to lead the profession into the future? .295 5.382 .000 .178 4.969 .000

How would you rate the AVMA Annual Convention? .217 3.530 .001 .121 3.003 .003How would you rate the quality of individualized member services offered by the AVMA? .218 2.971 .003 .106 2.175 .031


IMPORTANCE- PERFORMANCE Y Y-Y MEAN>0 Y-Y MEAN<0Coef


(Constant) 3.777 43.407 .000 4.253 48.728 .000 3.031 44.892 0Representative Leadership -.128 -2.057 .041 -.112 -3.037 .003Advocacy -.140 -2.278 .024Individual Member Services -.233 -3.899 .000Promote Value to general public -0.093 -2.488 0.014F statistic 21.152 0.63 16.945R Square 0.233 0.093 0.207

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Documents

Strategy Management in a Non-Profit Organization: The Case of AVMA