The Sustainable Path of Social Enterprises Toward Hybridity: Insights from Italy

Despite the increasing attention to the hybridization phenomenon in the modern social entrepreneurship literature, still little is known regarding the sustainable design of hybrid organizational models. Actually, one of the most cumbersome challenges for hybrids is to effectively fulfil both beneficiaries’ and customers’ needs, requirements, and expectations, being embedded in the conflicting – and often incompatible – logics of social mission and commercial activities. Hence, appropriate organizational models are needed to pursue social and economic performance, while maintaining the organization’s original social imprinting. Literature has highlighted the existence of two opposite stereotypes of hybrid organizational models, namely integrated and compartmentalized. However, the numerous intermediate organizational forms existing between these two alternative hybrids models have received limited attention yet. Relying on an inductive comparative case study, this paper aims at deepening knowledge about sustainable stereotypes of hybrids, conceptualizing a new organizational stereotype named the ‘semi-integrated’ model. Thanks to in-depth interviews with managers and board members of 9 hybrid organizations operating in the Italian socio-healthcare sector, critical issues for each organizational model emerged. In particular, six factors significantly affect the sustainability of hybrids organizations in achieving their social mission: internal and external legitimacy, monetary exchanges, loss of identity risk, organizational structure, and constraints to growth. Comparisons between the hybrids models are provided, highlighting main advantages and disadvantages in relation to organizational sustainability critical issues.