Hybridity In Contemporary Commercial Organizations

Times of extensive institutional pressure challenge the existence of commercial organizations as entities that reproduce a single coherent market-orientated institutional template to achieve effectiveness. In tune with pressure from changing markets, contemporary commercial organizations adopt various combinations of skills, templates, and processes for new sources of competitive advantage. At a conceptual level, hybridity embraces the notion that organizations may embody multiple templates, logics or values to achieve effective organizational performance. However, at a practical level, hybridity presents tensions, inconsistencies and contradictions for these organizations; a state of affairs that could have adverse negative consequences for employees’ behaviour and trust in the organization. This book offers an exploration of individual-level responses to logics multiplicity for all those interested in the future of commercial organizations.

The New Frontiers in African Business and Society series provides innovative reflections on the nature of business and society across parts of Africa and its emerging economy. Distinguished scholars formulate important answers to the problems within the continent, discovering new avenues of research and pathways forward.

This book offers a glimpse into the future. The companies it describes are pioneers, the first-movers in market shifts that will eventually become mainstream. These "hybrid organizations" – or what others call "values-driven" or "mission-driven" organizations – operate in the blurry space between the for-profit and non-profit worlds. They are redefining their supply chains, their sources of capital, their very purpose for being; and in the process they are changing the market for others. Using a combination of high-level survey analysis and, more importantly, in-depth executive interviews, the book helps fill the present gap in literature on environmentally focused and financially driven for-profit businesses. Moreover, it highlights key trends and critical themes that enable this new wave of socially conscious and fiscally minded enterprises to be successful in meeting both sets of goals. The takeaway for readers of this book is not only an appreciation for common business practices that hybrid organizations adopt, but also an understanding of the complexity of the integration of such adoption that allows them to successfully achieve both mission- and market-driven goals. The book begins with key definitions to establish the scope of this new sector, including explicit definitions for hybrid organizations, environmental sustainability missions, as well as specific criteria to create useful boundaries for the field of hybrid organizations. Building on prior work conducted by researchers on corporate social responsibility, sustainable entrepreneurship, and social enterprise, the book catalogues the best practices within this growing sector, helping others to learn from both the successes and failures of those that are choosing this strategy. The core of the book is built on an analysis of survey data from 47 hybrid organizations, investigating their business models and strategies, finances, organizational structures, processes, metrics, and innovations. The organizations represent a cross-section of size, age, industry, and geography, although the sample set is biased towards young, small, U.S.-based hybrids. Based on analysis of the survey data, five best-in-class companies were selected for in-depth case studies in order to provide instructive lessons for hybrid practitioners and researchers alike. In short, this book presents research that shows hybrid organizations to be a practical and feasible organizational model for contributing solutions to global environmental issues. The lessons in this book will help other social entrepreneurs, business managers, non-profit leaders, or students interested in careers that fuse profitability and responsibility do it even better.

Hybrid organizations combine elements of well-established, institutionalized structures and thereby move away from conventional organizational practices. The present research reveals that when hybrid organizations develop their operations, they are faced with challenges that are unique and unexplored and which are often grounded in their hybrid structure. Social business hybrids were chosen as an ideal setting for the study of organizational hybridity based on their unique organizational structure, which is characterized by a mix of commercial for-profit and charity logic.

This book contains Open Access chapters This volume integrates and redirects research on organizational hybridity, the mixing of logics, forms, and identities that do not conventionally go together. It sets a foundation for continued analytical rigor and real-world relevance.

A much-needed addition to literature, this timely edited collection aims to provide clarity and understanding on how modern organizations work. The authors explore the characteristics of hybrid organizations in contemporary society, taking into account the complex societal challenges that face businesses today. Arguing that hybrid organizations are in fact not a new phenomenon, this thought-provoking collection goes beyond existing research and re-evaluates our traditional understanding of this concept. Scholars of organization, management and innovation will find this book an insightful read, as it sheds light on the fundamental aspects that shape today’s hybrid organizations.

This book contains Open Access chapters This volume integrates and redirects research on organizational hybridity, the mixing of logics, forms, and identities that do not conventionally go together. It sets a foundation for continued analytical rigor and real-world relevance.

Reflecting the emergence of new organizational forms and hybrid organizations, this edited collection explores the processes of exchange, collaboration and technological management that have changed organizational structures. By investigating the impact that inter-organizational collaboration can have on the production and implementation of ideas within new firms, this study contributes to the growing field of innovation and responds to the need for a greater understanding of renewed processes. The authors argue that collaborations need to go beyond existing practices to create emerging paths such as bricolage, experimentation, effectuation and learning. Drawing together a diverse body of literature on the internal dynamics that drive organizational change, Learning and Innovation in Hybrid Organizations presents multiple perspectives on combining organizational flexibility with learning and innovation, and provides implications for future practice.