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Hybrid organizations: concept and measurement

Björn Schmitz (Phil!omondo, Heidelberg, Germany.)
Gunnar Glänzel (Centre for Social Investment, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.)

International Journal of Organizational Analysis

ISSN: 1934-8835

Article publication date: 14 March 2016

1854

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to find a new conception of hybridity to set ground for further systematic research. The concept of hybrid organisations is used in many ways. This leads to confusion among scholars and the term of hybridity appears to be meaningless and useless for research and practice.

Design/methodology/approach

In this explorative research design, the authors conducted 11 interviews with managing directors and managers of hybrid organisations in four different countries across Europe.

Findings

Each and every organisation is hybrid but to different degrees and with different patterns. It is important to measure hybridity to give value to the term of hybrid organisations. According to input, process and output dimensions, the authors could classify possible dimensions of hybridity measurement within organisations.

Research limitations/implications

The developed cube model serves as a new point of departure for hybrid organisation research and helps to build analytical types of hybrid organisations. The research has been highly explorative, and the limited number of cases researched leads to the requirement of further validation on a broader basis. In addition, the still rather conceptual state of the cube model will need further validation by means of a set of hybridity indicators.

Originality/value

The paper presents a way to deal with the question about what hybridity exactly is and whether hybridity is a term that has an analytical value. It also provides the first attempt to connect more analytical meaning to the concept of hybridity by suggesting an approach to concretely measure it.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Georg Mildenberger for fruitful discussions on developing the hybridity cube model. Furthermore, they would like to thank the reviewers for the comments that helped to develop this paper. They would also like to thank the University of Heidelberg for funding.

Citation

Schmitz, B. and Glänzel, G. (2016), "Hybrid organizations: concept and measurement", International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 24 No. 1, pp. 18-35. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-07-2013-0690

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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