Hybrid organizations and organizational structure: Insights from the Italian socio-healthcare sector

Hybrid organizations blending traditional aspects of the for-profit world with distinctively social activities and aims face consistent organizational problem about how to combine so different scopes, cultures and needs. We collected in-depth interviews with managers and board members of eight hybrid organizations working in the Italian Socio-Healthcare sector, to give full evidences of such problems and solutions adopted. Using a content analysis and a process of Open and axial code six emergent and prominent organizational concerns have arisen: internal and external legitimacy, monetary exchanges, loss of identity risk, organizational structure and constraints to growth. The paper also explores comparisons between different hybrid organizational responses to highlight advantages and disadvantages in relation to each specific factor.