Exploring the syncretic dynamics involved in dyadic business–NGO partnerships

Abstract

This paper articulates a framework that clarifies (hitherto unexplored) aspects of the dynamics involved in dyadic partnerships between businesses and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). At its core lies the proposition that businesses and NGOs operate with heterogeneous idea systems that are institutionalized in the definition of their organizational identities, missions and values statements and theoretically conceived of as institutional logics, worldviews, paradigms and cultures. The meeting of these idea systems is subject to processes of ‘syncretism’ that critically influence the potential of business–NGO partnerships to meet the normative expectations placed on them. The ‘business in society’ literature has however remained relatively inexplicit in terms of explaining what these processes might be. Drawing therefore on the literature on syncretism and the precepts of analogical reasoning, this study derives four main syncretic processes that determine the valence of business–NGO partnerships towards either congruity or dissent: borrowing, blending, bridging and breaking. While there is a potential for negative outcomes stemming from the first two processes, and in the fourth, bridging is highlighted as a promising, yet demanding, syncretic way for eliminating fundamental tensions between disparate idea systems. The article concludes with a research agenda, together with an outline of theoretical implications.