Hybrid Organizational Forms Research Articles

Organized Criminal Groups in the Modern World: Theoretical Foundations, Structure and Functional Aspects

This article is a comprehensive study of organized criminal groups (OCGs) in the modern world, covering the theoretical foundations of their study, structural characteristics and functional aspects of their activities. The paper traces the evolution of the concept of organized crime in criminological science, analyzes modern approaches to the definition and classification of OCGs, and considers the legal aspects of their definition at the international and national levels. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the structural characteristics of modern organized crime groups, including traditional hierarchical models, network structures, hybrid forms of organization, as well as new forms such as cluster and project organization. The study shows a trend away from rigid hierarchical structures towards more flexible and adaptive forms of organization, which allows OCGs to effectively resist law enforcement pressure and adapt to changing conditions. The article also examines key functional aspects of organized crime groups, including their role in the shadow economy, establishment of corruption links, transnational activities, use of modern technologies and adaptation to countermeasures. The impact of globalization and technological progress on the evolution of OCG forms and methods of operation is highlighted. The study demonstrates the need for an interdisciplinary approach to the study of organized crime, taking into account the complexity and dynamism of this phenomenon. The work contributes to the understanding of current trends in the development of organized crime and can serve as a basis for the development of effective strategies to counter organized crime.

Communities of practice as hybrids: Delving into the hybridization work of community leaders

In this paper, we consider communities of practice (CoP) as hybrid organizational forms where two institutional logics coexist. They carry elements of a social logic, which highlights the importance of social ties in the sharing of knowledge between members. At the same time, they also bear elements of a business logic, which considers knowledge as an asset to be captured, diffused, controlled and aligned with company strategy. Through a case study of 15 CoP in a multinational company, we explore how community leaders make do with the hybrid nature of their community. We take an institutional work lens to unpack their micro actions. This research contributes to the literature on responses to hybrid forms of organizations. Our results show three different types of hybridization work carried out by CoP leaders: meaning, boundary and identity.

Hybrid organisational form as a response to institutional complexity: The case of local municipally owned corporations in Lahore

AbstractThis paper explores hybrid organisational forms that have emerged in response to institutional complexity. For this purpose, the paper studies organisational practices to explore hybrid characteristics in municipally owned corporations (MOCs) and differentiate between distinct manifestations of hybridity. Using a case study research design, three MOCs are selected as units of analysis, and 30 semi‐structured interviews are conducted to explain why and how organisations emerge as hybrid organisations through the adoption of multiple institutional prescriptions that compete with their existing logic. The findings of the study reveal a practical approach to managing complexity where organisations tend to form different hybrids rather than simply accepting or rejecting institutional pressures. The study offers insights into the outcomes within organisational milieus as they navigate and assimilate these competing pressures, underscoring that the resultant ramifications may not invariably align with initial expectations.Points for practitioners Providing municipally owned corporations (MOCs) a clear framework that outlines their tasks, responsibilities, and expected results can prevent conflicts arising from differing institutional logics, ensuring that MOCs operate in alignment with the government's objectives. Hybrid organisations must cultivate a culture that emphasises adaptation and flexibility to gradually integrate the competing logic that improves system performance and sustainability. While introducing reforms, practitioners should invest in capacity‐building efforts for public organisations. Training and support initiatives are imperative to equip organisations with the skills needed to adapt, integrate conflicting pressures, and effectively cope with the demands of evolving institutional environments.

The Influence of Entrepreneurs’ Culture and Ethnicity on Firms’ Degree of Hybridity

Hybrid businesses that combine profit and social objectives at their core play an important role in their communities. In this article, we use insights from paradox theory to examine the influence of entrepreneurs’ cultural value orientations and ethnicity on distinct forms of hybrid businesses. We use a unique random sample of international small- and medium-sized privately owned businesses in Canada. After controlling for alternative explanations and using propensity scores to match the samples of Indigenous and non-Indigenous entrepreneurs, we consistently find that entrepreneurs’ self-expression values and Indigenous ethnicity are positively associated with a higher degree of hybridity in the businesses they start. Our findings contribute to the conversations on the micro-foundations of organizational paradox and to the literature on the factors that influence different hybrid organizational forms. Besides, our findings also add to the literature that examines hybridity in the context of internationalized businesses. The rationality and culture of the entrepreneur affect organizational paradox. Entrepreneurs with self-expressive values and identified with an Indigenous ethnicity have higher proclivities to form ideal hybrids and embrace paradoxical organizational forms.

To datafication and beyond: Digital transformation and accounting technologies in the healthcare sector

Prior accounting research problematizes the implications of individual technologies on digitization, digitalization, and digital transformation. However, it often conflates such terms and ignores the pervasive role of datafication. To address these issues, this study develops a processual view of digital transformation to explore how multiple accounting technologies and widespread digitization, digitalization, and datafication practices are implicated in the digital transformation of a public sector organization. In doing so, we draw on longitudinal, case-study evidence of a healthcare provider in England and highlight both the evolutionary and revolutionary ways through which organizational change manifested. The study develops a threefold contribution to the accounting and public administration literature. First, it offers a processual view of digital transformation that is conceptually distinct yet interlinked with entangled digitization, digitalization, and datafication practices. Second, it indicates that revolutionary change manifests in tandem with datafication practices which centralize control and empower diverse actors, while also creating inter-organizational tensions. Third, it contributes an understanding of how potentially contested datafication practices, novel digital infrastructures, and hybrid organizational forms gain social approval in the process of digital transformation.

Trajectories of Value Generation and Capturing by Public–Private Hybrids: Mechanisms of multi-level governance in healthcare

Our paper unpacks the multi-level process through which hybrids generate value in the long term. By combining interviews, archival and survey data, we examine the longitudinal trajectories of value generation of public–private hybrids (PPHs) established in the regionalized Italian healthcare system (1992–2018). We identify three ideal-type trajectories: (a) long-term value generation by stable PPHs; (b) long-term value generation by transient PPHs; and (c) interrupted value generation by terminated PPHs. We uncover how these trajectories are shaped by the interplay between regional governance arrangements – i.e. institutionally embedded norms regarding who is entitled to generate value for the field, the scope for organizational value capturing and the institutional monitoring system – and organizational governance mechanisms – i.e. the strategic orientation of individual PPHs and their internal monitoring functions. Our paper contributes to theory by conceptualizing the mechanism of ‘double filter’, which we define as the set of field- and organizational-level governance compensatory mechanisms that, together, allow long-term value generation by hybrids. We also problematize the relationship between hybrids’ value-generation capacities and the persistence of hybrid organizational forms, and ultimately trace it to different field governance arrangements. In so doing, we conceptualize ‘transient hybrids’ as a distinctive organizational form for long-term value generation.

How do project-oriented organizations enhance innovation? An institutional theory perspective

A project-oriented organization is a hybrid form of organization where a functional hierarchy is augmented with structures to manage projects strategically across the organization. Six project-oriented organizations from diverse industries that emphasize innovation in their strategies were selected for this study. We use the three pillars of institutional theory — regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive — and institutional entrepreneurship to analyze interview data from executive and project, program and portfolio management personnel in the project-oriented organizations to investigate how innovation is facilitated through external influences and internal responses. Our findings indicate that processes and new structures provide effective ways for innovation and, while individuals are important, processes are more effective than individuals at enabling innovation. We put forward some lessons for practice that emerge directly from the findings, including suggestions on improving allocation of resources, a need to focus on processes, reconceptualization of “failure”, and dedicated investment in market knowledge, customer knowledge, performance metrics and flexible governance structures.

Business-nonprofit hybrid organizing: a dynamic approach to balancing benefits and costs.

Efforts to address complex public health challenges can benefit from cross-sector collaboration, while also fostering growing business sector engagement in promoting health equity. What form business-nonprofit collaboration should take, however, is a difficult question for managers and leaders. Hybrid organizational forms, which combine for-profit and nonprofit elements within a single organization in unconventional ways, offer an innovative and potentially promising approach. Yet, while existing typologies of cross-sector collaboration have identified hybrid forms at one end of a continuum of possible forms of collaboration, these typologies do not differentiate the diversity such hybrid forms may take, and the costs and benefits of these innovative hybrid forms are poorly understood. This leaves managers interested in promoting public health through business-nonprofit hybrid organizing with limited guidance about how to maximize potential merits while mitigating drawbacks. We performed a qualitative comparative case study of three examples of business-nonprofit hybrid organizing. Data collection included 113 interviews with representatives from 42 organizations and observation of case study activities. We used thematic analysis within and across cases to characterize the form of hybrid organizing in each case and to examine benefits and costs of different forms for supporting initiatives. We identified two hybrid, collaborative forms - Appended and Blended forms. Each form had benefits and costs, the significance of which shifted over time contingent on changing strategic priorities and operating environments. Benefits and costs of particular forms become more or less important for establishing and sustaining initiatives under different conditions, requiring a dynamic view. No particular form of business-nonprofit hybrid organizing is inherently better than another. Optimizing hybrid organizing and ensuring resilient collaborations may mean allowing collaborative forms to evolve. Practitioners can manage tradeoffs between benefits and costs through an ongoing process of assessing the fit between a given collaborative form, strategic priorities, and relevant features of the operating environment. This dynamic view offers important insights for ensuring the resilience of business-nonprofit collaborative efforts to enhance public health.

Advancing research on project management in hybrid organizations: insights from the social enterprise literature

PurposeThis paper aims to understand the challenges of managing projects in hybrid organizations. The authors explore how organizations with persistent competing institutional logics strive to balance competing priorities, and the authors craft a research agenda to examine the capabilities to manage projects in hybrid organizations.Design/methodology/approachThe authors focus on the social enterprise hybrid organizational form to study how such organizations manage persistent competing social and economic logics. The authors review the project management and social enterprise literature to generate new insights and suggest future research directions for theory development for project management.FindingsThe understanding of the influences of the institutional context on the management of projects is still quite limited. The authors propose that project managers need adaptive capabilities to address how the dual logics, and their corresponding different expectations, can be flexibly combined. The objective is not to reduce the complexity due to the different logics, which is the focus of much of the literature on institutional complexity. Instead, the focus is on how to incorporate dual logics into a successfully blended hybrid organization.Originality/valueThere is a dearth of literature about how projects are successfully managed in hybrid organizations with persistent competing institutional logics, like social enterprises, and important questions remain to be answered. This paper offers new insights on the capabilities required to flexibly combine dual logics that would generally compete and create conflict on projects in hybrid organizations.

ТРУДОУСТРОЙСТВО МОЛОДЕЖИ В УСЛОВИЯХ ЦИФРОВОЙ ЭКОНОМИКИ

The article discusses the problems associated with changing the process of youth employment in connection with digitalization. Against the background of the characteristics of the modern youth labor market, a comparative analysis of the features of employment in the 20th and 21st centuries is given, among which the need to change in the 21st in the model of human behavior in the labor market in the digital economy, which requires invariance of behavior and independence in decision-making, the study of prospects is of particular importance. emerging in the economy and the development of an individual educational trajectory, constant self-development and self-learning, readiness to change the type of activity, based on their needs and capabilities. It is shown that the need to change behavior patterns is associated with changes in the conditions in which the modern labor market functions, among which the most important place is occupied by digitalization and globalization of the media, a variety of forms of employment, remote and hybrid forms of work organization, an increase in geographical diversity, expansion of opportunities for people with disabilities, reducing the regulation of activities.

Sacred and/or Profane? Contesting Commercialization in China’s Emerging Civil Sector

To what extent will hybrid organizational forms and practices, such as the commercial activities of non-profits, become institutionalized? In this article, we call for attention to the dual system of human morality—consequentialism and deontology—to examine the cultural foundations underlying the tensions in the development of organizational hybridity. On the one hand, the consequentialist moral culture catalyzes the emergence and institutionalization of hybrid organizational forms and practices when hybridity offers instrumental benefits. On the other hand, the deontological moral culture emphasizes purity and inhibits the institutionalization of hybridity, regardless of its costs and benefits. We provide quantitative and qualitative evidence to support our theory by examining how multi-level factors that influence the prevalence of consequentialist and deontological moral culture will either facilitate or hinder the institutionalization of nonprofit commercialization in China. Thus, our study contributes to filling the undertheorized lacuna for the cultural-structural antecedents and the moral foundations underlying the emergence of and potential upper limits for the institutionalization of hybrid organizational forms and practices.

In Search of Scholarly Impact

In Search of Scholarly Impact

Knowledge retention among six-year students in internal medicine in the context of distance learning

Aim. To assess the retention of theoretical knowledge of internal medicine and practical skills in 6-year students of the Department of General Medicine 5-6 months after the exam.Material and methods. Knowledge retention in internal medicine was assessed by testing on 11 topics (233 questions), while practical skills was analyzed by the results of electrocardiogram (ECG) interpretation and the clinical case task in 48 students.Results. The following internal medicine sections with a high and very high retention rate of theoretical knowledge (average, 59,1%) were identified: gastroenterology and hematology. One section with a low retention rate was identified (emergency endocrinology) (27,5%). Retention of practical skills was high in ECG interpretation (5 points) and low (2,3-3,5 points) in solving clinical case task.Conclusion. The results obtained showed that the educational process in a medical university should have hybrid forms of organization, including technologies and methods of distance and compulsory inperson education, even during a pandemic. This implies the analysis and deep processing of programs focused on the redistribution of different sections between distance and in-person forms of education.

New Contentious Politics. Civil Society, Social Movements, and the Polarisation of German Politics

ABSTRACT In this Special Issue, we show that the study of civil society, social movements, and protest is central for assessing the current state of German politics. First, moving beyond political parties and electoral politics delivers crucial insights into the ideological, affective, and organisational structuring of emerging polarisation and cleavages. Second, the transformations in electoral politics are closely interrelated with dynamics in civil society. Building on these perspectives, the contributions to the Special Issue underline that, due to the emergence of new cleavages, Germany, like other European countries, has seen a double transformation of its landscape of political contestation: ‘New contentious politics’ is on the rise, marked by new issues and claims as well as hybrid organisational forms and close interactions between protest and electoral politics. Importantly, in contrast to long-held assumptions, protest is not the exclusive terrain of ‘progressive’ forces and not shaped by increasingly differentiated arenas of mobilisation. Based on a broad range of cases and methods, the contributions take stock of social movement and civil society activism in Germany since the 2000s, i.e. in an era of multiple crises and increasing polarisation.

Externalization in the platform economy: Social platforms and institutions

The growing platform economy has revived the debate on the applicability of internalization theory in contemporary contexts. In moving this debate forward, we draw on insights from hybrids research and property rights theory to complement the internalization school. Our core contribution lies in a reconceptualization of platforms as a hybrid organizational form enabling the exchange of property rights between platform owners and complementors. Using social platforms as an example, we propose that improvement in a host country’s intellectual property protection will increase the multinational platform’s (MNP) level of internalization, and that the platform firm’s governance capabilities may weaken the effect of institutions on its operation mode. Our theoretical analysis yields new insights beyond the received view of internationalization that builds on the assumption of internalized proprietary resources. We conclude that internalization theory, as an overarching paradigm in IB, remains adaptable to new organizational forms in the digital economy.

Crafting professionals: entrepreneurial strategies for making a living through passionate work

ABSTRACT Early-career crafts graduates often face a perceived dilemma, that of balancing passionate work with their need to make a living. This paper explores the negotiation undertaken by early-career crafts graduates and the entrepreneurial strategies they adopted which variably combine the logics of passion and economics. The paper draws on qualitative interviews with 25 early career crafts graduates in England conducted in 2018. Five strategies -support, streams, synthesis, segment and synergy – are identified, including the different income generation and creative production models they represent. The challenges associated with particular strategies are also considered. The identification of these strategies provides a more nuanced understanding of the organisation and management of craft practices, particularly during the early career period, that goes beyond the acknowledgement of portfolio working as prominent feature of creative work. The paper contributes to the literatures on the organisation of craft work and creative entrepreneurship by identifying ways in which craft practitioners structure and manage their work to sustain and develop their practice. It argues that the positioning of craft micro enterprises as hybrid organisational forms provides an opportunity to redress the binary opposition between passion and work in the creative economy in favour of a more balanced approach. A call for further research on craft production at the micro-enterprise and sole trader level is made to develop new knowledge and recommendations to support the growth and sustainability of the craft sector.

Business Hybridization in the Financial Sphere Under the Conditions of Po St-Quarantine Economic Recovery

Abstract The article discusses the alternatives for financial institutions related to global business reshaping after pandemic waves during post-quarantine economic recovery. To select the most acceptable variant of business hybridization, the theory of generations was used, which allows us to determine the value orientation of different age group representatives and impose it on the financial institutions’ human resource policy during the transition to a hybrid form of business organization. On the basis of the integral spiral dynamics theory, a theoretical assessment of the correspondence of the corporate culture of organizations of different types to the options for the transition to a hybrid business is given. Various models of hybrid organizations in the financial sector have been developed and presented and their degree of compliance with the level of business development in Ukraine has been assessed. Sociometric analysis done on the representative sample in the well-developed business center of Ukraine reveals the possible approaches to the hybridization in the financial sphere with regards to age distribution of employees.

Mediaesthetic Code of Journalistic Materials of a social nature (by the Example of Special Projects of the Internet Edition «Takie Dela»)

On the example of the materials of the Internet publication «Takie Dela» (These things), the author considers the formation of a media aesthetic code in the materials of a social orientation. The work is clearly structured. It consists of introduction, conclusion and four parts: multimedia journalism; special projects — to the definition of the concept; media aesthetic code and analysis of the materials of the Internet publication «Takie Dela». Each of the paragraphs can be considered as an independent unit, at the same time explaining and forming the whole text of the presented article. The main methods of research were the method of continuous sampling (at the stage of formation of the empirical base); content analysis method, case study and method of media aesthetic analysis of the text (at the stage of analysis of materials included in the research base), analysis and generalization (at the stage of preparing the conclusions of the study). The theoretical and methodological basis of the study is represented by scientific works in such areas as genres and formats of journalism, code theory, media aesthetics and media aesthetic code. The results of the performed media aesthetic analysis demonstrate that socially oriented special projects have a hybrid form of material organization, monochrome in the choice of color scheme, descriptiveness and figurativeness in the design of the content of the material.

Психологическое сопровождение когнитивного и психосоциального развития школьников в условиях дистанционного обучения

The article presents an analysis of modern research on international educational practices of distance learning from the point of view of psychological support of cognitive and psychosocial development of schoolchildren. There are three stages of the development of these studies: catching up, operational and advanced. In catch-up studies, the authors focus on the analysis of psychological risks arising in the context of global digitalization of education; the negative impact of educational IT products on the cognitive, psychosocial and psychophysical development of a child’s personality is noted. Operational studies are works that are of an ascertaining nature and proceed from the need to adapt digital tools and electronic means to traditional learning in order to increase its effectiveness. The main targets of advanced research are not risks and attempts of psychological adaptation to widespread and newly created digital educational technologies, the main attention of their supporters is paid to understanding the very fact of digital transformation of education. Hybrid forms of educational organization, allowing to comfortably connect virtual and physical spaces, are considered by them as the inevitable perspective of education. The authors of the article see the lack of systematic research, as well as theories and concepts of the mental development of a modern child in the digital world as an obstacle to the progress of research and practical tools for psychological support of schoolchildren in distance education.

FROM HYBRID INSTITUTIONAL LOGICS TO SOLIDARITY CAPITAL

The aim of the paper is to analyse the process of the creation of the hybrid organizational form and the mechanisms of its action. The paper is theory oriented and is based on new institutionalism and hybridity. The research question is how a hybrid organization efficiently functions while simultaneously drawing on three different and partially contradictory institutional logics: commercial (profit-oriented activities), social (non-profit activities), and public (focused on the provision of high-quality social services). We argue that the core mechanism of action of the new organizational form is the solidarity capital.