The Influence of Interorganizational Collaboration on Logic Conciliation and Tensions Within Hybrid Organizations: Insights from Social Enterprise–Corporate Collaborations

Abstract

An increasing amount of research has examined the management of competing logics, and possible tensions arising between them, within "hybrid organizations." However, the ways in which the relationships of hybrids with other organizations shape the conciliation of these logics and tensions have received limited attention so far. In this theoretical paper, we examine how hybrid organizations deal with interorganizational collaboration, in particular whether and how their hybridity can be maintained when they partner with "dominant-logic organizations." Drawing on empirical literature on social enterprise-corporate collaborations, we develop a framework and several propositions on how competing logics and their balancing within hybrid organizations may be affected by interactions with organizations underpinned by one dominant logic. We suggest that influences will mostly depend on the type of collaboration pursued. A collaboration based on a lower level of engagement and interaction between the two partners is likely to give precedence to one logic over the other, reducing inter-logic tensions but possibly compromising organizational hybridity. By contrast, a collaboration featuring numerous interactions and mission compatibility may facilitate sustained hybridity if tensions are acknowledged and managed. Our propositions contribute to the literatures on hybrid organizations, interorganizational collaboration, and social enterprise.

How do social entrepreneurs develop technological innovation?

“…The findings show that these SEs use the resources and relationships at public-sector and commercial logics more frequently than their counterparts in SNSIs; both RI and RO are greater among SEs in WNSIs. Such interorganizational partnerships with the organizations from different logics are particularly important for an SE to examine how its hybridity is affected by the similarity or differences across logics (Savarese et al, 2020). As the second mechanism, the findings also reveal that the legitimacy problem among SEs in WNSIs is greater than SEs in SNSIs.…”

Legitimation work in sustainable entrepreneurship: Sustainability ventures’ journey towards the establishment of major partnerships

“…Most importantly, we explore opportunities and barriers for sustainability ventures to exploit logic duality, that is, to benefit from being able to draw on both commercially and environmentally, or socially, oriented arguments for their products and services. In so doing, our study also contributes to the broad literature on how organisations navigate institutional pluralism (Pache and Santos, 2013;Savarese et al, 2020;Wagenschwanz and Grimes, 2021).…”

Bringing the Family Logic in: From Duality to Plurality in Social Enterprises

“…The extant research in social entrepreneurship has predominantly focused on two contradictory logics (c.f., Mongelli et al, 2019), usually presented as posing incompatible goals, activities, and norms that are static and continuously shaping competing demands in the same way over time. Yet, emerging research, particularly in cross-sectoral partnership with social enterprises (e.g., Gottlieb et al, 2020;Jay, 2013;Savarese et al, 2020), demonstrates that duality is not the only form of hybrid organizing among social enterprises. Our findings contribute to this stream of research and explicate how the family, market, and ecological logics can interact in fluid and dynamic ways, beyond just permanent contradiction.…”

“…First, social enterprises typically operate in organizational fields characterized by a plurality of logics (Besharov & Smith, 2014;Mair et al, 2015). However, how social enterprises embed more than two logics is rarely investigated (c.f., Savarese et al, 2020). Second, investigating multiple logics within a social enterprise opens opportunities to understand how institutional logics interact beyond conflict.…”

“…Second, our findings provide initial insights into the interactions between ecological, market, and family logics in social enterprises in fluid and dynamic ways embedding synergies and contradictions. Thus, we contribute to the emerging stream of research on the plurality of institutional logics (e.g., Gottlieb et al, 2020;Jay, 2013;Savarese et al, 2020), beyond duality, and call for authentic representation of social enterprises that captures the logics present in them, instead of assuming only two conflicting logics. Finally, our findings shed light on the relationships between ethics and institutional logics and provide nuance to our understanding of the ethical challenges for social enterprises and family-owned firms from an ethics of care perspective (Tronto, 1993).…”