Nardia Haigh

The New Heretics: Hybrid Organizations and the Challenges They Present to Corporate Sustainability

Corporate sustainability has become mainstream; reaching into all areas of business management. Yet despite this progress, large-scale social and ecological issues continue to worsen. In this article, we examine how corporate sustainability has been enacted as a concept that supports the dominant beliefs of strategic management rather than challenging them to shift business beyond the unsustainable status quo. Against this backdrop, we consider how hybrid organizations (organizations at the interface between for-profit and nonprofit sectors that address social and ecological issues) are operating at odds with beliefs embedded in strategic management and corporate sustainability literatures. We offer six propositions that define hybrid organizations based on challenges they present to the beliefs embedded in these literatures and position them as new heretics of strategic management and corporate sustainability orthodoxy. We conclude with the implications of this heretical force for theory and suggest directions for future research.

Hybrid Organizations: Origins, Strategies, Impacts, and Implications:

This introduction to the special issue on hybrid organizations defines hybrids, places them in their historical context, and introduces the articles that examine the strategies hybrids undertake to scale and grow, the impacts for which they strive, and the reception to them by mainstream firms. It aggregates insights from the articles in this special issue in order to examine what hybrid organizations mean for firms and practicing managers as they continue to grow in number and assume a variety of missions in developing and developed countries.

Surprise as a Catalyst for Including Climatic Change in the Strategic Environment

This article examines what prompted electricity supply organizations to include changing climatic conditions as key elements of the strategic environment. Utilizing themes emerging from inductive analysis, the authors explain how and why surprising climatic events drove the organizations to begin including climate trends in their strategy development and planning processes. Results indicate that organizations were surprised climate was becoming more unpredictable, was directly affecting their operations, and was challenging long-held assumptions about climatic patterns. Our findings suggest that adaptation to climate change occurs predominantly as a reaction to climatic surprise, rather than a preemptive response to increasing awareness, and perceived uncertainty and risks as suggested by previous studies. Results also show that organizations are beginning to conceptually link changes in local climatic conditions to the global issue of climate change; though such linkages are not necessarily important to the inclusion of climate in the strategic environment.

The environmental sustainability of information systems: considering the impact of operational strategies and practices

Organisations have never been more global, technology-driven and information rich, nor more damaging to the natural environment. This paper presents the results of a study investigating the environmental sustainability of implementing Information Systems (IS). In addition to indicating how information systems can have positive and/or negative impacts on environmental sustainability, results also highlighted gaps between system design and deployment by users, where the efficiency, effectiveness and environmental impact of the IS are affected by operational practices. The study makes two notable contributions. First, by demonstrating a multi-disciplinary approach to designing and deploying information systems. Second, by qualifying and quantifying the impact of IS on environmental sustainability. Finally, by discussing the results in relation to the operational research literature, this paper demonstrates a role for operational research techniques in bringing the implementation of IS and positive environmental sustainability outcomes closer together.

Hybrid organizations as shape-shifters: : Altering legal structure for strategic gain

Social entrepreneurs navigate a complex landscape of legal structures in which they need to select among forprofit, nonprofit, and mixed-entity structures. This study of 48 hybrid organizations identifies why social entrepreneurs chose one legal structure over another and explains what motivates half of them to change their legal structure as they build their enterprise. It highlights the critical desire for flexibility among social entrepreneurs, discusses the implications that changes to legal structure may have for companies and hybrids in partnerships, and explores how companies can leverage hybrid structures to go beyond their current scope of CSR initiatives.

E-government and environmental sustainability: results from three Australian cases

In this study, we bring Information Systems (IS) and environmental sustainability together to examine the environmental sustainability of implementing Electronic Government (e-government). Results indicate that while positive environmental outcomes were sought in high-level strategies, they dissipated as they made their way down to the e-government strategy level. We analyse four strategy layers; showing the extent to which strategic intent can become diluted layer by layer, and develop an environmental perspective by which to analyse IS that highlight previously overlooked inefficiencies. We contribute to the stream of thought combining IS with environmental sustainability and discuss the implications for practitioners and researchers.

Linkages between eBusiness and sustainability outcomes: An exploratory study

Summary This paper addresses the intersection of two global trends through a study examining the impact of eBusiness capabilities on the natural environment. The growing requirements of organisations to deploy information systems innovatively and strategically, and to engage in corporate sustainability practices lead to their examination. The paper contributes to the debates in this area by using an exploratory case study method to examine four key propositions regarding the ecological impacts of eBusiness innovations. The study found eBusiness to be exporting resource consumption. It also found that economic growth enabled by eBusiness could erode era-efficiencies. Additionally, the study identified a measurement gap, leaving organisations handicapped in their decision-making by the inability to account for dissimilar ecological impacts without difficulty. The study supports the existence of significant links between eBusiness and the natural environment, along with the need to weave corporate sustainability into the early stages of organisational design and eBusiness strategy development to create positive and purposeful ecological impacts.

Hybrid Organizations: The Next Chapter in Sustainable Business

In this article, we describe how hybrid organizations are developing business models that are competitive and create positive social and environmental change. We discuss the distinctive characteristics of the hybrid business model, both conceptually and in practice. We also discuss ways in which hybrids are driving towards the alteration of long-held business norms and conceptions of the role of the firm in society, and are advancing a new meaning of corporate sustainability. Finally, we discuss the challenges that hybrid organizations face in accomplishing their social change goals, and point to ways that traditional businesses can adopt a hybrid approach.

The Use of Eco-Innovation to Address Labor Conflict: A Study of Small Wins Failure and Success

The characteristics of successful small wins approaches are understood; however, we know little about the causes and implications of small wins failure. We examine the causes and implications of failure and success of small wins approaches in six firms in the Australian meat processing industry as they sought to improve environmental management practices and address labor conflict. The approach failed in three cases and succeeded in three, and we use these case studies to develop a theoretical process model showing the inner workings of and explaining differences between failed and successful small wins approaches. Failing firms we studied challenge the assumption that small wins approaches are low risk, as “small flops” led to the ultimate demise of the program in each case, while successful firms we observed showed how, once mastered, a small wins approach can be leveraged to address other seemingly intractable issues.

The Role of Beneficiary Engagement in Performance and Impact Measurement in Social Enterprises

Performance measurement is increasingly important within the field of social enterprise. There are a number of methods for measuring performance and impact and in this paper we specifically investi...