The Continuing Training Sector in France and the Role of Non-profit Organisations

In a context in which private firms are asserting their claims to social responsibility, the ability of non-profit organisations to provide a credible alternative is attracting increasing attention. Are the doubts that are emerging justified? In other words, are non-profit organisations losing their specificity? Drawing on an analysis of an original database relating to a key sector in the knowledge-based economy, we show that non-profit organisations do indeed differ in certain respects from for-profit organisations. In other respects, however, their behaviour does not demonstrate a particularly highly developed social conscience.