Organizational Hybridity, Social Enterprise, and Social Innovation: Disentangling Concepts to Advance Theory and Practice

Abstract

Extant research on social enterprises as hybrid organizations provides valuable insights for both research and practice. By focusing on the intersection of hybridity and social enterprise, however, this work misses other important challenges and opportunities in social enterprises – beyond hybridity – and also risks overlooking alternative forms of organizing – beyond social enterprise – that contribute to social innovation and impact. As a result, we are left with an incomplete understanding of organizing approaches for addressing deep-rooted societal problems. This chapter sets the foundation for a more comprehensive approach by disentangling hybridity, social enterprise, and social innovation. It then outlines three ways of building an expanded understanding of organizing strategies for social impact: moving beyond hybridity to draw on additional conceptual lenses for understanding social enterprise; moving beyond social enterprise to study alternative organizing models for social innovation, including efforts to address deep-rooted societal problems through initiatives within large corporations and across organizational boundaries; and moving beyond social innovation to anchor on problem domains and consider how and to what extent alternative organizing models effectively address them.KeywordsHybriditySocial enterpriseSocial innovation