Sabbatical Filip De Beule: Hybrid Organizations, The Next Chapter in Sustainable Business: A Comparative Institutional Study

Across the globe, hybrid organizations have attracted increased interest from practitioners and policymakers, but also from the academic world. Hybrid organizations, like social enterprises and cooperatives, set up in response to market failures in communities, are delivering innovative solutions to persistent social and environmental challenges. This new breed of organizations has taken a more business-oriented approach to tackling social and environmental problems. Although their company registration may vary according to country, they typically have a declared social mission, generate an income and are accountable to the communities they serve. This new hybrid form of organization is demonstrating ways to compete not only on the quality of goods and services, but also on the ability to effect positive social and environmental change. The business models these organizations employ blur the boundary between for-profit and nonprofit worlds. Hybrid organizations can exist on either side of the for-profit/nonprofit divide; blurring this boundary by adopting social and environmental missions like nonprofits, but generating income to accomplish their mission like for-profits. Hybrids are built on the assertion that neither traditional for-profit or nonprofit models adequately address the social and environmental problems we currently face. Entrepreneurs of hybrids therefore seek to build viable organizations and markets to address specific social and environmental issues. Hybrid organizations are underpinned by a new and growing demographic of individuals who place a higher value on healthy living, environmental and social justice, and ecological sustainability in the products and services they purchase, the companies in which they invest, the politicians and policies they support, the companies for which they work and, ultimately, the lifestyles they lead. Through this research, together with international colleagues, I plan to analyze and discuss the distinctive characteristics of the hybrid business model, both conceptually and in practice. We will also discuss ways in which hybrids are driving towards the alteration of long-held business norms and conceptions of the role of the firm in society, and are advancing a new meaning of corporate sustainability. Finally, we discuss the challenges that hybrid organizations face in accomplishing their social change imperative. The proposed research has two objectives: (a) To understand the nature and scope of hybrid organizations that work on global commons or public goods in different institutional environments; (b) Based on the field data, and case studies, and the extant literature, build new theories on hybrid organizations, commons, and public goods.