Enabling Sustainable Transformation: Hybrid Organizations in Early Phases of Path Generation

Abstract

The rapidly growing research on hybrid organizations in recent years suggests that these organizations may have particular abilities to facilitate institutional change. This article contributes to our understanding of change and, in particular, sustainable transformation in society by highlighting the importance of organizational forms. Looking more closely at the role of hybrid organizations in processes of path generation, we analyze the conditions under which hybrid organizations may enable path generation. A retrospective (1988-2017) exploratory case study of the Swedish hybrid organization The Natural Step confirms how hybrids can take part in-and may facilitate the early phases of path generation: assimilation and coalescence. The conclusion drawn is that hybrids have multivocal abilities that enable them to earn trust and authority to open up "neutral" spaces for orientation and connection between actors in separated sub-paths, and that this in turn may ease tensions and trigger dialogue and exchange, also between former opponents. Yet, as also seen in the case, this enabling position of the hybrid may be both fragile and temporary.

Business Model Involvement, Adaptive Capacity, and the Triple Bottom Line at the Base of the Pyramid

“…Our findings do not support this argument with respect to the environmental impact at the BOP. A critical gap in the hybrid organization literature is that it does not explain how hybrid organizations prioritize different objectives (Alexius & Furusten, 2020;Denis et al, 2015). Consistent with corporate social sustainability research (Margolis & Walsh, 2003), the BOP approach assumes that a win-win between the three elements of sustainable performance will lead to a sustainable performance.…”

“…Hybrid organizations may support adaptive capacity of the business model as competing organizational goals create uncertainty and ambiguity that enables change and stimulates the search for new opportunities (Smith & Besharov, 2019). However, Battilana and Dorado (2010) show that hybrid organizations that combine both sustainable development and commercial logics at the BOP experience significant conflict between these logics because hybrid organizations do not have an explicit protocol that explains how to prioritize commercial, social, and environmental objectives at the BOP (Alexius & Furusten, 2020;Denis et al, 2015). The tension between economic development and ecology may particularly apply to the development at the BOP.…”

Associações entre características de organizações híbridas e elementos contextuais de resiliência organizacional

“…Associações entre características de organizações híbridas e elementos contextuais de resiliência organizacional. Revista Eletrônica de Ciência Administrativa, 19 3 atrelam simultaneamente o foco na criação de valor social e econômico (Battilana et al, 2012;Ebrahim, Battilana & Mair, 2014;Mair et al, 2015;Mcmullen & Warnick, 2016;Kannothra, Manning, & Haigh, 2018;Moss, Renko, Block, & Meyskens, 2018;Alexius & Furusten, 2019;Bauwens, Huybrechts, & Dufays, 2019). Este estudo aborda organizações híbridas através do enfoque de racionalidades, que segundo Battilana et al (2017), envolve modelos e práticas que orientam a forma de interação com ambiente.…”

An Exit Strategy for the Definitional Elusiveness: A Three-Dimensional Framework for Social Entrepreneurship

“…"Social entrepreneurship organizations" (SEOs) represent the growing number of organizations with an entrepreneurial spirit dedicated to changing the social landscape. These organizations practice a "social entrepreneurship" that many researchers and practitioners differentiate from traditional business entrepreneurship and social service delivery (for example, [1][2][3][4][5]). Despite social entrepreneurship's growing worldwide use, an accepted definition of the phenomenon remains elusive, thus hindering attempts to effectively study it [6][7][8][9][10][11][12].…”