Hybrid Organizations Research Articles

Exploring the Evolutionary Boundaries of Community Business

Community businesses contribute to the economic and social well-being of the communities in which they operate. As a subset of hybrid organizations, community businesses have unique challenges and opportunities related to their community embeddedness. Our study adopts an institutional logic perspective to understand the evolutionary boundaries of community business, which we argue, are shaped by the interplay of tensions between the social, market, and community logics. While existing literature discusses institutional logics from a dichotomous angle, focusing mainly on the social and market logics, we argue that the introduction of a third logic (i.e., community logics) has ramifications for the evolution of hybrid organizations. The different trajectories may have implications for the social, community, and economic impact that organizations can have. We draw on 39 qualitative interviews to provide useful insights for policy and practice on supporting community businesses.

The Myth of the Altruistic University: Lessons From Universities’ Sponsoring of Events

Universities are hybrid organizations, which increasingly embark in entrepreneurial activities as a means of achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). These include outreach and community engagement activities such as sponsoring cultural or sporting events. With our conceptual expository argument, taking a multitheoretical approach, we contribute to the event management and social entrepreneurship literatures by examining how and why universities engage in UNSDGs-oriented events. This is important as little is known about how they contribute to the UNSDGs and use events. We question the altruistic assumption underpinning their engagement. Informed by institutional theory and strategic management value-based literature, we explore why they have taken this route and suggest self-interest rather than altruism is driving their decisions to engage in social entrepreneurship. They are value-creating strategies. We argue it is serendipity that many interpret universities??? social entrepreneurship decisions and the events that flow from them as acts of altruism.

Leading hybrid organisations: the contribution of "leadership beacons", emotional transcendence, and transitional space to cross organisational collaboration

Hybrid organisations contribute to solving wicked problems arising from societal issues stemming from public health, climate change, or crime. They combine at least two organisations with different institutional logics, cultures, and identities. Their collaboration across boundaries is characterised by conflicts and paradoxical tensions due to the inherent coopetition paradox arising from the need to maintain their organisational identities. My research with a Dutch public–private partnership (PPP) fighting large-scale financial crime focuses on the understanding of emotional reactions of management and leadership to these conflicts and paradoxical tensions. In a preliminary study used as a foundation I demonstrated together with colleagues that emotional transcendence is a key ingredient in facilitating collaboration. In this presented study I found that "leadership beacons", i.e.leaders with a clear and pronounced value-based leadership approach which illuminate the path towards collaboration are creating this emotional transcendence. In this article I want to first show how leadership beacons create this emotional transcendence by offering a transitional space. As a result, emotional trust and thus collaboration are strengthened. Some resulting practical advice for leaders will follow and I will conclude this article with a discussion of the results and an outlook for future research.

Accounting and reporting for facing multiple values in meso-level hybrid organisations

This work examines a new form of second-level hybrid, Meso-Level Hybrid Organisations (MLHOs), which do not generate an entity with a legal form or boundaries and are composed by a set of members in the organisational field, linked by multiple relationships and engaged in solving complex problems that require both public and private efforts. Our research interest is in the role that accounting and reporting systems can play in these hybrids, which do not have to comply with mandatory accounting requirements but have to respond to information pressures from their internal and external stakeholders, having different institutional logics and conflicting values and goals. By interpreting accounting and reporting as boundary objects through which value work can be enacted, the research highlights the role that accountants play in recomposing multiple values through participatory processes of designing and implementing an accounting and reporting system. A case study narrated through the discursive lens of ‘mixing, compromising and legitimising mechanisms of value creation among hybrids' shows how the design of a voluntary reporting system can, under certain conditions, strengthen an MHLO. Our findings show that a tailored accounting system can counteract the centrifugal and disruptive forces inherent in these forms of hybrid settings.

The Impact of State Ownership on Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting: A Comparison Between State-Owned and Non-State-Owned Enterprises in China

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting is a communication channel between companies and stakeholders. As the literature has largely been confined to exploring privately-owned enterprises, state-owned enterprises (SOEs)—a typical example of public sector organizations—warrant further investigation. This study examines SOEs’ accountability structures and reporting features, which are dominated by state owners and mainly driven by non-financial objectives. Through a content analysis of the CSR reports of 49 SOEs and 111 non-SOEs in China, we analyze the stakeholders and CSR domains involved in the reporting. The findings demonstrate that SOEs disseminate the full coverage of stakeholders and a wider scope of CSR domains in disclosure. We extend the debate on CSR-reporting research by demonstrating how state ownership influences hybrid organizations’ self-expression and accountability frame through our finding of a distinctive specialized sub-organization with strong ties to the state that drives CSR internally.

Taking stock of research on hybrid organizations: Enriching theoretical perspectives, extending empirical contexts, and expanding practical relevance

Organizations are increasingly subject to conflicting demands arising from shifting consumer desires, evolving regulatory backgrounds, and emergent sociocultural trends. The concept of the hybrid organization (HO) has rapidly emerged as a powerful tool to explain organizations’ deployment of multiple logics to respond effectively to these external demands. However, despite its popularity, the theoretical concept and, crucially, its practical implications remain unclear. By combining state-of-the-art bibliometric techniques with content analysis, we delineate the current body of literature on HOs, uncover its patterns, reveal its intellectual underpinnings, and suggest avenues for future research. Our database of 596 academic works published between 1987 and 2019 reveals that contemporary debate surrounding HOs is structured around 11 major themes and anchored in four dominant theoretical foundations. We conclude by offering guidance on ways to enrich theoretical perspectives, extend empirical contexts, and expand the practical relevance of the body of knowledge on HOs.

Re-orientating agricultural research to address complex challenges: Legitimacy dynamics of a hybrid research organisation

Agricultural research organisations play a critical role in the agri-food system; not only through the provision of research and technologies, but also by brokering relationships with stakeholders throughout the research process to create impact. Yet over the past decade, as the focus has shifted towards such multi-actor innovation processes, the role and legitimacy of the agricultural research organisations world-wide has been challenged. Occupying an intermediary position in agricultural innovation systems means that agricultural research institute legitimacy is constantly under pressure from the rural community, academics, policy makers, industry, and general society as the institute attempts to be all things to all people. Here we present the outcomes of an organisational change programme within an applied agricultural research organisation, in response to a government-led agenda to increase impact for research users. By using institutional theory of hybrid organisation legitimacy, we shed light on the multiple institutional logics that co-exist within an agricultural research institute, and how these align with the external institutional environment. We show that with the introduction of a new multi-actor innovation logic, attempts were made to legitimise, externally and internally, knowledge co-production. Yet agricultural research organisations, and those who work within them, need dedicated time for learning and reflecting on the values, beliefs, and practices of the different actors in the innovation system, otherwise they only selectively adopt practices that maintain existing institutional logics. The main theoretical implications show how that change towards an impact culture is influenced by the existing logics, and how organisational legitimacy provides a framing for understanding the success (or otherwise) of introducing new modes of innovation in hybrid research organisations. Practically, space and resourcing are needed to experiment with new logics and deliberate strategies are required to increase the repertoire of research roles while maintaining internal and external legitimacy. The practical implications demonstrate the barriers and opportunities of re-orientating hybrid agricultural research institutes, agricultural innovation systems, and the roles of the researchers that work in them, to deliver to the complex societal challenges facing the agri-food sector.

소셜벤처 비즈니스 모델 유형별 투자선호도가 투자의도에 미치는 영향

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of preferences for each of the three types of social venture business models, a hybrid organization, on investment intention. In addition, it is intended to verify the mediating role of positive emotions in the relationship between preferences by type and investment intention. In order to conduct this study, a survey was conducted on 101 investors.
 The results of the study are as follows. First, based on the hybrid characteristics of social ventures, the types of business models were classified into 'Embedded', 'Integrated', and 'External', and the relationship between type preference and investment intention was analyzed. Second, positive emotions have been shown to play a mediating role in the relationship between preferences for social venture business models and investment intentions.
 Based on the results of this study, the following implications were presented. First, the higher the preference for embedded, integrated, and external business model types, the higher the investment intention, so it is necessary to analyze investment cases by business type in detail to find ways to reduce investor uncertainty. Second, social venture managers should consider what business activities to include social missions in and include them as sustainable programs so that they can lead to investment intentions. Third, from the perspective of investors, it was confirmed what factors are needed and affect in investing in social venture business. Through this, social venture managers will be able to establish specific strategies that can be presented to investors. Finally, through this study, various follow-up studies by domestic investors, social venture companies, and related parties can be expected by verifying the relationship between investors' positive emotions and investment intention variables according to the type of social venture business model.

Principled Leadership and Business Ethics: Innovative Models of Mission-Drift Avoidance in Social Entrepreneurship Hybrid Venture Development and Management

The purpose of this research is to demonstrate that SE must be ethically developed and managed, especially, SE hybrid organizations (SEHOs), to avoid the mission-drift, to sustain the very existence and purpose of these entities. Research aims to present that interrelated concepts of principled leadership (PL) and business ethics (BE), are innovative models of ethical development and management for SE hybrid organizations (SEHOs). This research is of a descriptive nature, a deductive approach and a quantitative survey design. Cross-sectional online questionnaire and non-profit questionnaires are delivered via email to SEHVs selected according to specific research criteria. Research results confirm that principled leadership (PL) and business ethics (BE), are innovative models of mission-drift avoidance in SEHV development and management, making a clear distinction between the two phases, resulting in organizational sustainability. Adopting principled leadership (PL) and business ethics (BE), allows SEHVs to successfully establish and manage these ventures with mission-drift avoidance, prioritizing and advancing their social missions, contributing to social and economic development, solving a predominant number of world’s problems.

EVALUATION OF HELIX INNOVATION MODELS AND TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT ZONES IN TÜRKİYE WITHIN THE NATIONAL INNOVATION SYSTEM FRAMEWORK

Economic growth and sustainable development, as well as increasing competitiveness in international markets, depend on the establishment of a knowledge-based socio-economic structure. Helix innovation models (HIM) are used to prepare the ground for a knowledge economy, society, and democracy, and to make economic growth and development sustainable. The triple HIM, focusing on the creation, diffusion, and commercialization of knowledge through triple network structures and hybrid organizations, is an effective model for fostering innovation and entrepreneurial culture. The model, obtained by including media-based and culture-based public and civil society actors in the triple helix structure, is referred to as the quadruple HIM. The triple and quadruple HIMs are expanded to include the natural environment factor in the quintuple HIM. Türkiye's national innovation system (NIS) has been designed within the scope of the triple HIM. The contribution of technology development zones (TDZs) in Türkiye to the NIS has been evaluated within the framework of HIMs and the entrepreneur and innovative university index. In this context, it has been concluded that enhancing intellectual property performance and economic and social contributions, as well as developing university-industry collaboration, are necessary.

Strategy Performation to Avoid Degeneration: How producer cooperatives can achieve social and economic goals

Due to tensions between social, cooperative and competitive goals, producer cooperatives often degenerate by abandoning their cooperative and social goals or fail economically. We show how these pressures to degenerate into business-as-usual can be resisted and even reversed through a longitudinal study of Zespri, a cooperative responsible for 30% of global kiwifruit exports. We employ a performativity lens to theorise the organising involved in regenerating cooperative principles while introducing new competitive strategies. We explicate three types of performativity: performative dualism, instrumental performativity and performative multiplicity, and offer nuanced insights into how different performative struggles unravel and temporarily resolve through different modes of ordering (distribution, coordination and mutual inclusion). Our insights further contribute to organisation studies about cooperatives’ tendencies to degenerate/regenerate by showing the importance of organising the multiple, and sometimes conflicted, views of actors in a generative and productive way. Those findings can be extended to other democratically managed and hybrid organisations.

Partnering for impact: unveiling the dynamics of collaboration between social enterprises and impact investors in emerging economies

PurposeThis study empirically aims to examine the collaboration between social enterprises (SEs) and impact investors (IIs), which are organisations with similar interests but with distinct logics, and in high demand in emerging economies with complex problems. Despite the significant economic contributions of these organisations, there have been limited studies examining how they collaborate in different contexts, including theoretical insights explaining how they gain partner fit from resource synergy.Design/methodology/approachMainstream businesses use the compatibility and complementarity concepts to examine buyer–supplier strategic alliances. Using similar concepts in the context of hybrid organisations, the authors interviewed six pairs of SEs and IIs with dyadic relations in Nigeria, aiming to deeply understand how they align dissimilar logics in pursuing common goals in emerging economies.FindingsThe authors’ findings revealed how compatibility criteria from the institutional logics perspective and complementarity from social exchange theory guide collaboration between SEs and IIs in an emerging economy. Using these theories provides new insights that distinguish SEs and IIs collaboration from conventional theories on the internationalisation of businesses, which remained insufficient for understanding the cross-border operations of SEs.Practical implicationsThe study holds practical implications for organisations, regardless of their size, international investors, governments, organisations and individuals desiring to pursue sustainable business agendas in emerging economies with huge impact opportunities and the process involved.Originality/valueThe outcomes of this study extend knowledge of the theoretical lens examining collaborative entrepreneurship from the perspective of hybrid organisations. It also challenged existing knowledge on collaboration between SEs and IIs, often characterised by potential tensions due to the dissimilarity of institutional logics of actors.

Social enterprises’ objectives and choices of legal forms under the framework of Sustainable Development Goals – an analysis of 80 cases in Zhejiang Province, China

Purpose This study aims to measure social enterprises’ (SEs’) social objectives under the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework, and explore the impact of SEs’ social objectives on their choices of legal forms. Design/methodology/approach This study used semi-structured questionnaires followed up by field interviews and observations of the sampled SEs. The survey sample includes 80 participants of Social Entrepreneurs Stars Competition in Zhejiang Province of China. The authors conduct content analysis to measure the objectives of SEs. The authors also perform descriptive analysis, chi-square test and regression analysis on the data. Findings The findings confirm the theoretical discussions that SEs’ choices of legal forms reflect SEs’ strategies toward achieving social objectives. Similar to certain countries, some SEs in China register as nonprofit entities to concentrate on nonprofitable sustainability objectives, while others register as commercial enterprises or hybrid organizations to generate profits. However, some SEs focus on profitable non-sustainability issues and fail to prioritize social objectives over economic objectives. There are positive effects of social entrepreneurs’ background similarity and negative effects of social entrepreneurs’ educational level on their SEs’ choices to register as commercial enterprises. Research limitations/implications Due to the small size and nonrepresentative sample this study is based on, the findings need be further tested by a larger sample. SEs in different service domains rely on different types of financial resources (Mair et al., 2012; Doherty et al., 2014). In future research, the model can be expanded to test the effects of service domains and types of financial sources on SEs’ choices of legal forms. Practical implications To encourage more societal resources being allocated toward achieving the United Nations’ SDGs, policymakers and SE certification programs are recommended to explicitly incorporate sustainability objectives into the evaluation standards and supportive policies for SEs. Social entrepreneurs who aim to balance the social and economic objectives in their business are suggested to target the population with whom they share similar community background. Training or consulting programs for social entrepreneurs are suggested to provide advice tailored to their socio-economic background and personal experiences. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ this study is the first quantitative analysis to identify factors that associate with SEs’ choice of legal forms in China. The authors developed new instruments to measure SEs’ social objectives and service targets, access to financial resources and social entrepreneurs’ social-economic backgrounds.

Determinants of social innovation in hybrid organisations: The moderating role of technology readiness

AbstractA balance between economic, social, and ecological performance has emerged as a key concern for organisations around the world. The modern era emphasises achieving eco‐friendly business outcomes to drive social needs along with higher financial performance. However, hybrid organisations in developing countries frequently progress in ecological and economic terms but struggle with social innovation. Based on this backdrop, this study aimed to investigate whether or not technological readiness, organisational learning, transformational leadership, and sustainability orientation influence social innovation within hybrid organisations. Data from 447 hybrid organisations in Ghana are used in the study. Study findings reveal that transformational leadership promotes social innovation among hybrid enterprises, while sustainability orientation decreases it significantly. Technology readiness also reduced the social outcome associated with sustainability orientation by moderating their negative effects. To maximise social innovation outcomes, this study recommends managers of hybrid organisations to adopt policies regarding the efficient use of internal resources and processes through technological readiness. Furthermore, the organisation's future learning processes, leadership structures, and sustainability orientation policies should be aligned with its social innovation goals.

Addressing social-business tensions in hybridized nonprofit organizations: The contribution of strategic human resource management

Nonprofit hybridization represents the adaptive response to a turbulent external and internal environment leading to tensions between contradictory goals (e.g. social and business goals). Although research has provided insights into the strategies for addressing the tensions stemming from hybridization, it has paid less attention to how strategic human resource management (SHRM) may play a role in managing these social-business tensions. Given the increasing complexity nonprofit organizations (NPOs) face, this hybrid context presents a valuable opportunity to examine the concept of SHRM “fit” in terms of different stakeholder demands, diverse and competing goals and resulting tensions. This article aims to conceptualize and contextualize SHRM fit in hybridized NPOs to gain a better understanding of how organizations can orientate their systems and practices to manage competing demands stemming from hybridization. Hereby, we use SHRM fit to illustrate the opportunities for and limitations on practice within a hybrid context. Bringing the nonprofit and hybrid literature together, we develop a typology of nonprofit hybridization that distinguishes NPOs according to their financial and social orientation and specify the tensions and management approaches that dominate these types. Drawing on the concept of SHRM fit, we advance a framework and propositions on how the management approaches in each of the types result in different configurations of vertical and horizontal fit that address social-business tensions. Hereby we extend current debates in the hybridization literature on tensions between opposing goals and research on SHRM approaches in NPOs and contribute to a theoretically-informed understanding of the implications of tension management approaches in variants of hybrid organizations.

A port performance measurement approach using a sustainability balanced scorecard based on stakeholders’ expectations

ABSTRACT This study aimed to integrate stakeholder theory into developing port performance management systems through the sustainable balanced scorecard (SBSC), which represents and reflects different stakeholders’ expectations in hybrid organizations, such as port communities. The study developed an integrated stakeholder-based framework for global performance measurement, ensuring a balance between the SBSC performance indicators and stakeholders’ consensus. Fifty-seven port performance indicators (PPIs) selected from the literature were categorized into six SBSC dimensions and assessed by 41 stakeholders in the Port of Radès using the failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) technique. The framework fully considered the stakeholders’ perceptions, expectations, and satisfaction levels. Prioritizing the PPIs using an indicator priority number, inspired by the risk priority number approach of FMEA, fostered an effective balance between the performance dimensions in the SBSC. The developed framework can help port authorities reach a consensus on the most important strategic priorities, align port stakeholders’ expectations, prioritize their improvement actions, and gain a significant competitive advantage. The participative approach enabled by the integration of stakeholder theory promotes the effective use of global performance measurement systems. Emphasizing the governance and environmental dimensions of the SBSC contributes to enhancing port competitiveness.

The Paradoxical Relationships of Performance in Hybrid Organizations

The Paradoxical Relationships of Performance in Hybrid Organizations

Relational Pluralism within the Hybrid Organization

Relational Pluralism within the Hybrid Organization

Response Strategies and CEOs’ Perception about Moral Legitimacy of Hybrid Organizations

Response Strategies and CEOs’ Perception about Moral Legitimacy of Hybrid Organizations

Paradoxical By Vocation: How Hybrid Organizations Embed A Paradoxical Cognitive Frame

Paradoxical By Vocation: How Hybrid Organizations Embed A Paradoxical Cognitive Frame