Keeping Hybrid organizations alive: Integrate or de-integrate commercial and social activities? Insights from the Italian Socio-Healthcare Sector

The paper focuses on critical managerial issues faced by non-profit organizations that have undergone substantial hybridization process, thus siding the traditional social programs with commercial activities. Such problems lead to three types of hybrid solutions: an integrated, a disintegrated and a semi-integrated model. From in-depth interviews with managers and board members of eight NPOs belonging to the Socio-Healthcare Italian sector, six critical factors best describe such model: internal and external legitimacy, monetary exchanges, loss of identity risk, organizational structure and constraints to growth. Comparisons between hybrid business and solutions have been provided, highlighting for each model advantages and disadvantages in relation to specific factor.