Hybrid Organizations
What sets hybrid organizations apart from traditional firms? What challenges to hybrids face? How effective are hybrids at alleviating social and environmental ills? What drives them to change over time between non-profit and for-profit models, or developing a mix of the two? These questions and others have been the focus of research by Dr. Nardia Haigh. If you would like to take part in Nardia’s current research, please read on:
Are you a Social Entrepreneur who tackled the question “Should I start my enterprise as a for-profit, non-profit, or a hybrid of both?”
If so, we’d love to interview you (for around 30 mins).
Nardia Haigh at UMass Boston’s College of Management is seeking participants for a study investigating why social entrepreneurs choose for-profit vs. non-profit vs. a hybrid of both. If you would like to participate in this important study (and we hope you will!), please email Nardia at nardia.haigh@umb.edu for more information. All participants and their companies will be treated with complete confidentiality.
Hybrid organizations have been called Fourth Sector, For-Benefit, Mission Driven, Benefit Corporations, and Social Enterprises. We use the term hybrid organizations because it is emerging as a dominant term and reflects their tendency to develop business models that are a hybrid of what is traditionally considered for-profit and non-profit (and they can be registered as either). Hybrid organizations generate income in ways that are often consistent with a for-profit model, but they abide by substantial social and environmental missions that have historically been associated with non-profit models. Hybrid business models have been termed “sustainability-driven,” because they are designed with the specific intention of alleviating a particular set of sustainability issues while remaining economically viable.