Hybrid Ventures Research Articles

Pathways to Scaling International Impact: Exploring Capabilities in B Corps

With the rising global awareness of sustainable development issues, hybrid ventures have increasingly brought their solutions across borders to scale their impact internationally. Yet, prior research has largely concentrated on international scaling undertaken via sales growth for economic goals. We instead offer an elaborated conceptualisation of international impact scaling, which includes internal growth, partnership, and dissemination downstream and upstream in the value chain. Stemming from prior research that views capabilities as critical ‘firm-specific advantages’ for international expansion, we investigate which capabilities hybrid ventures leverage when scaling impact internationally and to what extent they differ across scaling strategies. We adopt a qualitative method to analyse seven B Corps, a type of hybrid venture whose impact is certified. The findings reveal three clusters of foundational capabilities that B Corps leverage irrespective of the specific scaling strategy adopted, alongside a range of targeted capabilities that are specifically important to each international scaling strategy. The study contributes to international scaling research and the literature on hybrid ventures.

Crowdfunding Social Ventures: Who Will Reward (or Punish) Hybridity?

Unlike traditional investing, where decisions follow a clear financial calculus, it is unclear how and why funders support hybrid ventures. To address this question, we analyze the varied priority that investors place on social impact versus financial returns and draw on categories theory to argue that different priority orderings associate with different perceptions of how hybridity aligns with different investment goals. Results show that funders who prioritize financial goals react positively when they perceive a venture exhibits greater hybridity, whereas funders who prioritize social impact do not. Our findings contribute to research on impact investing, hybrid organizations, and categories theory.

Hybrid Ventures and Healthy Cities: Community Logics and Mission Variation

Hybrid Ventures and Healthy Cities: Community Logics and Mission Variation

Profit and Purpose – An Unlikely Friendship?

While recent scholarly and practitioner debates are touting social enterprises as a potential solution to grand challenges, few studies have so far investigated how stakeholders perceive such hybrid ventures that combine a social mission with profit orientation. The authors develop a conceptual framework proposing that individuals generally evaluate organizations with a social mission as more legitimate than those which lack such a purpose beyond profits. Yet, drawing from recent research on “tainted altruism”, i.e., research which reported stakeholder backlashes for organizations with a social mission that seek profits, the framework suggests that individuals perceive social enterprises with high profit payout levels as greedy, which lowers their overall legitimacy perceptions. Furthermore, the framework proposes that the tainted altruism effect will depend on the founder’s gender in a way that female founders will be penalized more strongly than male founders for seeking profits while pursuing a higher purpose. The authors test the conceptual framework using a vignette experiment, finding that the proposed effects do occur, but only for a subset of respondents with high levels of socially responsible consumption involvement. Results contribute to research on social enterprises, theories on the purpose of business, and gender stereotypes in social entrepreneurship.

Social impact models, legitimacy perceptions, and consumer responses to social ventures

Social entrepreneurs create hybrid ventures that combine revenue-generating business models with social impact models to produce value for two primary stakeholder groups: consumers and beneficiaries. The interactions between social entrepreneurs and their beneficiaries are heavily studied. However, consumers’ responses to a venture having a social impact model have received almost no scholarly attention even though a large number of hybrid ventures rely heavily on consumers to make their business models viable. In this study, we draw from legitimacy theory and pair an experimental design with structural equation modeling to examine consumer responses to ventures with a social impact model. We hypothesize and find that a social impact model influences consumers’ perceptions of venture legitimacy. Legitimacy perceptions are, in turn, related to consumers’ purchase intentions and willingness to recommend the venture to others. Our findings produce insights into how social entrepreneurs appeal to consumers to create financially sustainable ventures.

When Do Donors and Investors Unite? Entrepreneurial Ecosystems and the Financing of Hybrid Ventures

A central tenet of hybrid ventures is that their dual focus on social and commercial missions can enable them to attract funding from philanthropic and equity financing sources simultaneously. Yet, many hybrid ventures face conflicting institutional demands that can make it difficult to do so. Leveraging recent theorizing on entrepreneurial ecosystems, this study investigates conditions when alternate sources of entrepreneurial finance for hybrid ventures may complement each other. We propose that spatial (e.g., accelerators) and digital (e.g., social media) affordances act as signaling platforms in modern entrepreneurial ecosystems that moderate resource mobilization in hybrid ventures such that they can enhance the complementarity between philanthropic and equity financing of hybrid ventures. Furthermore, we suggest that the higher order, cultural affordances (relational norms) will govern the signaling strength of these lower-order entrepreneurial ecosystem affordances. Empirical results from a simultaneous equation model of a global sample of 6576 social ventures from 38 countries support the proposed framework. By applying a novel empirical approach on a multi-level entrepreneurial ecosystems’ framework, we direct attention to how hybrid ventures leverage signals between financing sources to increase funding outcomes.

Mission and Money: Unpacking Competition between Hybrid Organizations in the Nascent MOOC Market

This study explores the competition between hybrid organizations in a nascent market over time. Grounded in a multi-case theory-building study of two massive open online course (MOOC) technology ventures, this study contributes at the intersection of organization theory and strategy in relation to hybrid organizations. The theoretical framework indicates that hybrid ventures in nascent markets engage in competitive games that include setting performance objectives, creating distinct hybrid forms, and making relevant moves. I find that successful hybrid ventures (1) play their own games as the market forms, (2) adapt how they play their games as the market evolves, and (3) rely on boards of directors to organize their games over time. In contrast, less successful hybrid ventures struggle to adapt their games as the market evolves, ultimately blunting their abilities to achieve their missions. As the market evolves, hybrid ventures must adapt their forms to sustain and gain performance advantages. A core insight is that the flexibility (or inflexibility) of venture governance shapes how effectively a hybrid venture adapts to the market and competes with rivals. Overall, this study provides a novel view of how hybrid organizations compete for both the mission and the money in nascent markets over time.

Navigating compromise: How founder authenticity affects venture identification amidst organizational hybridity

Founders of hybrid ventures encounter organizational tensions that can compel compromise in both their organizations' and their own personal values. Such compromises may, in turn, undermine founders' identification with their ventures. In a multi-case study analysis we examine why social entrepreneurs differ in their responses to organizational tensions, both at the firm- and individual-level, and how such differences relate to their venture identification. Specifically, our findings reveal that strategic decisions made in the context of values-based complexity are often accompanied by concerns regarding founder authenticity—that is, judgments about the alignment between founders' actions and the commitments or responsibilities associated with their identities as entrepreneurs. Yet, because founders differ in the basis from which they seek to maintain such alignment, these differences shape both hybridity management and subsequent venture identification. By unpacking such differences, our findings contribute new theory, bridging recent scholarship on founder authenticity with longstanding research on organizational identification and hybrid organizing.

Avoid, Align, or Embrace: How Drivers Influence the Way Sustainable Entrepreneurs Solve Triple Bottom

Sustainable entrepreneurs strive to achieve economic, environmental and social objectives simultaneously (Schaltegger & Wagner, 2011), and thus, often face tensions to balance these often contradicting demands stemming from their business models (Davies & Chambers, 2018). Yet, despite being an essential task for sustainable entrepreneurs, how they manage these tensions remains under theorized. Thus, to advance our understanding of sustainable entrepreneurs, the current study sets out to investigate how different entrepreneurial drivers, an important factor that has been found to predict entrepreneurial behavior (Carsrud & Brännback, 2010), influence the strategies sustainable entrepreneurs use to handle the tensions inherent to the triple bottom-line. In order to answer our research question, we have followed a multiple case study approach, and collected data via in-depth and semi-structured interviews with the founder(s) of hybrid ventures. Our findings revealed that different entrepreneurial drivers impact the way the sustainable entrepreneurs operate their hybrid ventures, and more specifically how they handle tensions in their triple-bottom line. By identifying a typology of sustainable entrepreneurs on the basis of their entrepreneurial drivers, while linking different drivers to different strategies employed by sustainable entrepreneurs when handling triple bottom-line tensions, we contribute to the streams of research on sustainable entrepreneurship and sustainable management.

Funding the story of hybrid ventures: Crowdfunder lending preferences and linguistic hybridity

Prosocial crowdfunding platforms are venues for individual lenders to allocate resources to ventures that specifically pursue economic and social value. In a setting where hybridity is expected, do crowdfunders respond positively to category-spanning ventures, or do they prefer to fund ventures that are more clearly situated within a single category? Drawing on theory rooted in category membership and spanning, our hypotheses test whether prosocial crowdfunding lenders will more quickly allocate resources to hybrid microenterprises that communicate their hybridity, or to those that communicate a single one of their dual aims. Our study demonstrates that even in such a setting, crowdfunders lend more quickly to microenterprises that position themselves within a single linguistic category in which the social is emphasized over the economic. This suggests that how hybrid organizations position themselves in their linguistic narratives has a significant impact on resource allocation by external prosocial audiences.

Unpacking entrepreneurial opportunities: an institutional logics perspective

Taking into account the institutional context, I refine and broaden the concept of entrepreneurial opportunities by introducing micro-level evaluative criteria based on underlying macro-level institutional logics. The existing focus on so-called lucrative opportunities, which is implicitly based on a market logic, narrows the overall actual set of potential opportunities, and neglects what I call the opportunity–entrepreneur desirability nexus. Enterprising individuals evaluate and pursue entrepreneurial opportunities based on various and frequently combined underlying institutional logics. The extensive institutional theory literature on managing diverse and sometimes contradictory institutional demands, for instance in the pursuit of hybrid ventures, thus offers theoretical insights that are appropriate and expedient for the analysis and theoretical advancement of the entrepreneurial opportunity notion.

Art ventures as hybrid organisations: tensions and conflicts relating to organisational identity

Research indicates that hybrid ventures face more complex challenges than other ventures, due to multiple institutional logics. Institutional logics theory suggests that this is due to different institutional backgrounds that influence actor perspectives and expectations on decision making authority and venture identity, which in turn result in tensions and possible conflicts, especially over time. The article explores challenges of art ventures related to such tensions through a multiple case study. A conclusion from the study is that tension and conflicts are unavoidable as ventures grow or reach a stabilisation phase, in art ventures as in other organisations. Art ventures as hybrid organisations need to balance artistic, managerial and political logics if they are to be successful. There is a need for more research on art entrepreneurship, in particular as regards similarities and differences in relation to venturing in other fields.

Art ventures as hybrid organisations: Tensions and conflicts relating to organisational identity

Research indicates that hybrid ventures face more complex challenges than other ventures, due to multiple institutional logics. Institutional logics theory suggests that this is due to different institutional backgrounds that influence actor perspectives and expectations on decision making authority and venture identity, which in turn result in tensions and possible conflicts, especially over time. The article explores challenges of art ventures related to such tensions through a multiple case study. A conclusion from the study is that tension and conflicts are unavoidable as ventures grow or reach a stabilisation phase, in art ventures as in other organisations. Art ventures as hybrid organisations need to balance artistic, managerial and political logics if they are to be successful. There is a need for more research on art entrepreneurship, in particular as regards similarities and differences in relation to venturing in other fields.

Toward a Better Understanding of Hybridity in Social Entrepreneurship

Drawing on organizational identity theory and conceptualizing social entrepreneurial (SE) ventures as hybrid organizations with dual normative and utilitarian identities, this paper explores the relative importance of normative identity in SE ventures and the triangulatory properties of different sources of data on hybrid identities. Building upon a pioneering study of hybrid identities of SE ventures by Moss et al. (2011), we demonstrate that the analysis of online mission statements might not give an accurate evidence of the “true” organizational identity of hybrid ventures and instead capture their “intended image”. We, therefore, suggest that hybridity can be inferred from strategic choice – rather than the stated mission of an SE venture.

"Category Promotion: How Hybrid Ventures Integrate ""Standing Out"" and ""Fitting In"""

Scholars are increasingly attending to the process by which categories emerge and gain legitimacy. This research argues that category promotion – the practice whereby an organization voluntarily si...

Creating Shared Value in the Hybrid Venture Arena: A Business Model Innovation Perspective

In this paper we develop a strategy process model for hybrid ventures centered on business model innovation for shared value creation. We then validate the framework with an empirical focus on L3Cs, a new breed of hybrid ventures that occupy the middle ground between nonprofits and for-profits. With this research we contribute to business model innovation research, we extend established theoretical perspectives to the social entrepreneurship domain, and contribute to the understanding and diffusion of best practices when the strategic intent is the simultaneous creation of public and private wealth.