New Hybrid Forms and Their Liability of Novelty
2020; Emerald Publishing Limited; Linguagem: Inglês
10.1108/s0733-558x20200000069008
ISSN0733-558X
AutoresAli Aslan Gümüşay, Michael Smets,
Tópico(s)Management and Organizational Studies
ResumoAbstract Much recent work on hybrids has focused on the strategies and practices these organizations develop to manage the institutional contradictions associated with straddling competing logics. Less attention has been paid to what we call the liability of novelty, defined as the heightened institutional challenges new hybrid forms face both internally and externally. These, we argue, go beyond the liability of newness commonly associated with new venture formation. In this chapter, we use the case of Incubate, a Muslim social incubator in Germany. This case is particularly instructive insofar as Incubate is a hybrid in both substance and mode of organizing: Its mission integrated domains of religion, commerce, and community, and its mode of organizing straddled the digital–analog divide. Neither Incubate's members, nor its external stakeholders could rely on existing institutional templates to make sense of it. It was not only organizationally new, but also institutionally novel. As a consequence, it experienced what we distinguish as descriptive and evaluative challenges. It was both "not understood" and "not accepted." This chapter outlines four practices to address these challenges: codifying, crafting, conforming, and configuring, and categorizes them along internal versus external as well as forming versus transforming dimensions. Keywords Digital technology Liability of novelty Organizational form Organizational hybridity Religion Social entrepreneurship Citation Gümüsay, A.A. and Smets, M. (2020), "New Hybrid Forms and Their Liability of Novelty", Besharov, M.L. and Mitzinneck, B.C. (Ed.) Organizational Hybridity: Perspectives, Processes, Promises (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 69), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 167-187. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20200000069008 Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited Copyright © 2021 Ali Aslan Gümüsay and Michael Smets. License Open access contract; Chapter 8 'New hybrid forms and their liability of novelty' © 2021 Ali Aslan Gümüsay and Michael Smets. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This chapter is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial & non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode Introduction Hybrid organizations commonly embrace diverse institutional logics (Friedland & Alford, 1991; Thornton, Ocasio, & Lounsbury, 2012). For instance, social entrepreneurs draw from the institutional logics of market and community (Doherty, Haugh, & Lyon, 2014) to pursue both commercial value and social values (Gümüsay, 2018; Wry & York, 2017). They confront the resultant institutional pluralism (Kraatz & Block, 2008) by developing strategies and practices that constructively engage with the competing institutional logics, and sustain a hybrid form (Battilana & Lee, 2014; Gümüsay, Smets, & Morris, 2020; Kraatz & Block, 2008; Mair, Mayer, & Lutz, 2015; Smets, Jarzabkowski, Burke, & Spee, 2015; Smith & Besharov, 2019). In this chapter, we focus on how to legitimize a new hybrid organizational form (Huybrechts & Haugh, 2017; Tracey, Phillips, & Jarvis, 2011). In doing so, we respond to calls for deeper connections between institutional theory and entrepreneurship (Bruton, Ahlstrom, & Li, 2010; Tolbert, David, & Sine, 2010) as well as social entrepreneurship (Smith, Gonin, & Besharov, 2013). Building on existing research that emphasizes how novelty intensifies the experience of institutional tensions (Smets, Morris, & Greenwood, 2012), we argue that new hybrid forms – compared to established hybrids – face intensified institutional tension and scrutiny because of the lack of an established template (Gümüsay et al., 2020; see also Wry & Durand, this volume). We therefore explore the additional challenges of integrating institutional elements in a novel yet coherent way in the face of skepticism and adversity. Notably, the lack of a template may concern the hybrid's novel mission, or substance, as well as its innovative delivery, or mode of organizing. Establishing a coherent new organizational form requires an engagement with taken-for-granted cognitive and normative categories to develop what Greenwood and Suddaby (2006, p. 30) call an "archetypical configuration" that is deemed appropriate and legitimate. The study is hence motivated by the following research question: How do new hybrid organizational forms engage with the liability of novelty? To answer this question, we conducted an in-depth case study of a Muslim social incubator in Germany, which we dub Incubate. In contrast to most hybrids documented in the literature, Incubate incorporates three logics: market, community and religion (Gümüsay, 2015). In addition to its substance, its mode of organizing is also hybrid, relying primarily on digital engagement, complemented with physical events. As a result of this multi-dimensional hybridity (see also Glynn, Hood, & Innis, this volume), Incubate concurrently grapples with the institutional complexities of a new socio-religious incubator, and its hybrid form of organizing across the analogue–digital divide. This chapter makes two theoretical contributions: first, we extend the concept of "liability of newness" (Stinchcombe, 1965), that is, "the higher propensity for younger organizations to die" (Singh, Tucker, & House, 1986, p. 171) and introduce the notion of a "liability of novelty." This captures the higher "legitimacy threshold" (Zimmerman & Zeitz, 2002, p. 414) of new organizational forms. They face this higher threshold, we argue, as they set out to deliver benefits that the current institutional infrastructure is sceptical about and does not yet recognize as valid. There is thus a higher propensity for new forms to be deemed inappropriate. Put differently, the legitimacy threshold for ventures that are institutionally novel is higher than for those that are merely organizationally new. This is because they face both descriptive and evaluative liabilities, that is, a new organizational form can be both "not understood" and "not accepted". How new hybrids pass this higher threshold is important to understand, as it determines to what extent novel solutions to existing social problems become available. Second, the chapter offers insights into how hybrid organizational forms deal with their liability of novelty both internally and externally. The liability of newness typically centers on the challenge of making a new organization understandable and palatable to an external audience, while initiating and developing internal cohesion and coordination. By comparison, figuring out a new form faces the dual challenge of explaining and justifying new templates to external audiences, while internal constituents are still figuring out how the logics they represent interrelate. New hybrids, we argue, address these internal and external challenges concurrently in a way that balances novelty and familiarity: Internally, they incorporate novelty while struggling to remain cohesive. Externally, they attempt to fit into the existing institutional context without losing their novelty. We identify four specific practices by which they do so: codifying the new form, crafting novel templates, conforming to established forms, and configuring the institutional environment. These practices are concurrently formative – stabilizing the organization's inner workings (codifying) and blending in externally (conforming) and transformative – experimenting with new structures, practices, and identities (crafting), and constructing an institutional niche that facilitates access to various forms of capital (configuring). New Hybrid Organizational Forms Novelty of Organizational Forms An organizational form is "an archetypal configuration of structures and practices given coherence by underlying values regarded as appropriate within an institutional context" (Greenwood & Suddaby, 2006, p. 30). In this context, "appropriateness" in an institutional context has typically been evaluated through organizational legitimacy, "a generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs and definition" (Suchman, 1995, p. 574). For a new organizational form this is particularly challenging as it is not an incremental evolution, but a fundamentally novel configuration of characteristics that gives rise to both external and internal challenges. Externally, the organization needs to engage with its novelty in the institutional field as its legitimacy cannot be evaluated in relation to existing archetypes. As it bridges categories, field actors struggle to place the organization and use established heuristics to evaluate it (Wry & Durand, this volume). Consequently, the template for evaluation needs to be constructed alongside the new organizational form that is to be evaluated. This is particularly taxing, as a new organizational form emerges because existing alternatives in an institutional context do not (adequately) address an important societal need. Internally, the organization also faces additional struggles. It does not only straddle potentially conflicting institutional logics but needs to craft new practices and codify new templates for bridging them. The new form ventures into unchartered territory. There is no commonly accepted set of values that gives the novel configuration of structures and practices internal coherence. Hence, new organizational forms go against the weave of the existing institutional fabric. Commonly, novelty in organizational forms is based on their new characteristics. Most prominently, Puranam, Alexy, and Reitzig (2014) determine it based on whether four problems of organizing are addressed in novel ways: task division, task allocation, reward provision, and information provision. Importantly, while Puranam et al. (2014) essentially conceive novelty as universal, Suchman's (1995, p. 574) definition of legitimacy suggests a more relative concept of institutional novelty as actions are being evaluated "within some socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs and definition." Arguably, then, actions could be novel in one "system," while being established in another. This understanding makes novelty an emic, field-specific, and relative concept (see also Palmer, Benveniste, & Dunford, 2007). A relative conceptualization of novelty can be understood as bound by space and time. An organizational template may be novel in one context, but no longer in another. For instance, social entrepreneurship (Dacin, Dacin, & Tracey, 2011; Mair & Martí, 2006; Mair & Rathert, this volume) has become a widespread vehicle to address pressing social needs, complete with an institutional infrastructure with central nodes such as Ashoka. Nonetheless, social enterprises are still considered a new organizational form in other settings (Mair & Rathert, this volume), for example, where social needs are predominantly met through charitable organizations or public services. In fact, in these settings, a new organizational form like social enterprise may irritate taken-for-granted processes and practices, as it highlights the needs they left ignored or under-served. In this sense, notions of established-ness and novelty are contingent on field conditions and thereby spatially and temporally bound (see Casasnovas & Chliova; Glynn et al.; Wry & Durand, this volume). Even if field participants were to agree that a particular organizational template was novel in a particular space, the period of time during which it is perceived as novel may be subjective. For some, it may not be conceptualized as novel after a shorter, for others after a longer period of time. For instance, in the last couple of decades, cellular, modular, and networked organizations were deemed novel as post-bureaucratic modes of organizing (Palmer et al., 2007). They have increasingly become the norm in certain sectors such as software development, while in others, more "traditional" modes of organizing still dominate. As a result, post-bureaucratic modes of organizing would be seen as novel in the latter, but no longer so in the former. Presently – and reinforced by COVID-19 – digital organizational forms become more widespread (Hinings, Gegenhuber, & Greenwood, 2018; Zammuto, Griffith, Majchrzak, Dougherty, & Faraj, 2007). Novelty of forms is thus temporary. Additionally, novelty is a question of degree; it is neither absolute nor binary. Instead, organizational forms are judged as more or less novel vis-á-vis other forms. In this vein, new forms that are perceived as more similar to existing alternatives, or those that are perceived as closer to an established categorical template are likely to be perceived as less disruptive and novel than those which directly challenge a taken-for-granted archetype, for instance by injecting a new institutional logic into a particular social domain (Gümüsay, 2020). Hybrids as New Organizational Forms Much recent research on new organizational forms has focused on "hybrids" (Battilana & Lee, 2014; Battilana, Sengul, Pache, & Model, 2015; Pache & Santos, 2013) as organizations that deal with diverse institutional demands. In a Schumpeterian fashion, the recombination of institutional logics can innovatively constitute a new form. Social enterprises have been identified as particularly instructive instances of such innovative recombinations of logics as they "draw from both for-profit and nonprofit institutional logics, which may be in conflict with one another" (Dacin et al., 2011, p. 1207). Archetypically, social enterprises combine the business and community logic (Battilana & Dorado, 2010; Gümüsay, 2018), but they may also draw on others such as religion (Zhao & Lounsbury, 2016), and on more than two logics (Greenwood, Díaz, Li, & Lorente, 2010; Mitzinneck & Besharov, 2019). However, to date work in this vein has focused less on the novelty of the organizational form and more on how these organizations deal with the institutional complexity inherent in their straddling competing logics (Greenwood, Raynard, Kodeih, Micelotta, & Lounsbury, 2011; Kraatz & Block, 2008). There is thus a need to rediscover "the nexus between institutional context and hybrid organizing" (Mair & Rathert, this volume, p. 189; cf. also Casasnovas & Chliova, this volume). In some instances, the institutional context can offer templates and confer legitimacy to organizations that wish to enact an organizational form, as evidenced in B Corp certification (Gehman & Grimes, 2016; Grimes, Gehman, & Cao, 2018). Alternatively, some hybrids may be novel to the extent that their institutional context cannot provide a template, such as in the case of KT Bank, the first Islamic bank in the Eurozone (Gümüsay et al., 2020), or Aspire, a UK-based social enterprise supporting the homeless (Tracey et al., 2011). In these instances, an organization hybridizes substance: a new organizational hybrid combines institutional logics in a new way that is unprecedented in its field. It faces both institutional pluralism due to diverse and oftentimes conflicting institutional demands, and, in addition, it is also confronted with institutional challenges due to the novelty of its hybrid form. Additionally, novelty not only concerns the substance of new organizational forms, that is, the institutional logics being combined, but also the mode of organizing, that is, the way they adapt novel structures, practices, and/or processes (Meyer & Höllerer, 2014; Mair & Rathert, this volume). The particular challenge of legitimizing new organizational forms, then, lies in the fact that they disrupt established institutional templates both in the way they create novelty (substance) and in the way they resolve it (mode). Examples of such novelty in forms of organizing include the likes of Uber, Airbnb, and other disruptive innovators that are not just new ventures, but fundamentally challenge established business models and face intensified scrutiny as a consequence (Botsman & Rogers, 2010; Cennamo, 2019; Srnicek, 2017). Notably, it may be the "what," the substance that goes against the grain, but also the "how," the mode of organizing, as in the examples above or in new organizational forms such as the social hacker collective Anonymous (Dobusch & Schoeneborn, 2015) or online communities such as Wikipedia and Linux (Garud, Jain, & Tuertscher, 2008). Overall, the novelty of such forms is context-dependent bound by space, time, and the interpretations of actors in the field. New forms emerge and evolve either due to a perceived novel recombination and reconfiguration of existing or the perceived creation of novel coherent constellations of organizational characteristics – or both. Their novelty faces an external institutional environment as well as internal institutional processes that result in the engagement with processes of institutional stability and change. Research Site and Methodology Research Site To understand how new organizational forms can address their "liability of novelty," we study "Incubate," a Muslim social incubator in Germany founded in 2010. Incubate constitutes an "unusually revelatory" case (Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007, p. 27) as it combines market, community and religious concerns and delivers its mission across analog and digital means. Its mission is to enable and encourage social entrepreneurship in the German Muslim community. Incubate does so through a variety of formats including analog and digital conferences and workshops, networking dinners, think tank activities, and funding and mentoring schemes. Organized by up to 100 staff, these events welcomed participants who self-identified around their faith and social entrepreneurship. Incubate remained deliberately inclusive. It did not assert any theological authority to define who was, or was not, a Muslim and supported non-profit social projects with the potential to evolve into social enterprises. The organization describes itself as "the first platform for social entrepreneurship from Muslims for society," while outsiders note its novelty as a "prototype of neo-Muslim communitarization" (Mykytjuk-Hitz, 2015, p. 196, emphasis added). In short, Incubate is especially novel in the German context as it leverages social entrepreneurship rather than charitable activity as a vehicle for doing good – and did so as early as 2010 when the concept was not yet widely known in Germany (see Mair & Rathert, this volume). It mobilizes Muslim, rather than Christian values as the driver of its social mission; and it positions young Muslims as the providers of community services, rather than their recipients. In many ways, it sits at the intersection of the rise of social entrepreneurship, the growing number of Muslims in "the West," and technological advancements. In multiple documents, Incubate describes that it offers four types of capital: human, social, financial, and cultural, which translate into the provision of knowledge, network, money, and motivation, respectively. Accordingly, projects that received support from Incubate deliver across a broad range of causes, from the social, to the ecological and cultural. Some projects have an explicit religious focus such as an audio CD about the life of Prophet Muhammad. Others are "projects with underlying values that are not exclusively [Islamic], but also Islamic" (int). For instance, I,slam, is a poetry slam organization, Nour energy, an organization that builds solar energy panels on mosques, the Intercultural Institute for Inclusion assists people with mobility and accessibility constraints to access Islamic content and conferences. HIMA offers information and consultancy services on environmental protection particularly for Muslim organizations; Restart supports refugee artists; and Refugee Open Ware offers investment in humanitarian technology and innovation and runs trainings in computer coding and robotics for refugees. Frimeo is a smartphone app that connects consumers with local farmers. Incubate supported these projects with prize money, a mentorship program and publicity activities. Incubate's initial challenge of institutional novelty, but also its growing legitimacy are illustrated by its partnership network and a host of awards it received in recognition of its mission. For instance, its partners and sponsors include household names from the world of social enterprise such as Ashoka Changemakers, Engagement Global and Social Impact Lab, and also other reputably organizations like the British Council, which had a particular focus on social entrepreneurship at the time. In short, Incubate associated with an international network in the world of social enterprise, seeking validation from these organizations rather than its local institutional context. Concurrently, in 2011, Incubate was selected as one of the 20 projects in the social entrepreneurship competition "Generation-D," in 2012 it won the Act for Impact Social Entrepreneurship Academy audience award, and in 2013 the startsocial scholarship. These awards are all sponsored by renowned companies and foundations in Germany. By showcasing Incubate as a new template for civic engagement, they celebrate the novelty of its approach and signal its increasing acceptance. Data Sources To capture the intricacies of how Incubate engaged with its new hybrid organizational form, we use a case study approach (Eisenhardt, 1989; Yin, 1994) that relies on three kinds of data. First, we used participant observation from Incubate's founding in March 2010 until October 2018 and label observation data as "obs" in the text. As co-founder and executive board member of Incubate between 2010 and 2013, the first author gained in-depth "native" access and insights into the organization (Brannick & Coghlan, 2007). He collected data as "observing participant" at conferences and (online) meetings (Alvesson, 2003, p. 174). In total, he attended eight conferences, 28 local events – from networking dinners to full-day strategy retreats – and four webinars. He participated in over 220 board and team meetings conducted online. In addition, he took part in meetings with sponsors, partners, journalists, and advisory board members. In October 2012, the first author commenced his doctoral studies and, in that context, started a research diary in which he recorded discussions, observations, and experiences. Given that most activities were online, he took notes both during and directly after calls and webinars. At conferences, he wrote down observations on a laptop or on paper, subsequently typing up the notes in a research diary in the evening or following the events. Second, we collected documentary materials, labeled "doc," such as conference brochures, reports, and other written materials produced by Incubate. These include both final versions and earlier drafts, which allowed us to trace the evolution of ideas and distinguish those ideas that became reality from those that were abandoned or toned down in the process. The first author also had access to Facebook groups, WhatsApp messages as well as email, newsletters, and forwarded exchanges. He also had unrestricted access to project management groups, as Basecamp was used as a means to work, store, and share documents and other materials online. Also, we collected external documents such as newspaper articles, website materials, blog posts, book chapters about Incubate, video material, and social media posts. For external documents, we followed three search activities. We searched for Incubate on Factiva, used Google search and screened posts shared by the organization. We used snowball sampling in the sense that we identified links in documents and followed them on to capture what has been written about the organization. Our aim was to collect an exhaustive plethora of documents to capture Incubate in its institutional context and across time. Third, in addition to various informal interviews, the first author conducted 20 formal semi-structured interviews ("int") with both Incubate staff and members of projects that participated in the incubating activities. To reduce challenges of role duality and conflict linked to auto-ethnographic research (Brannick & Coghlan, 2007; Karra & Phillips, 2008), interviews were scheduled in summer 2018, over five years after his executive board membership in the incubator had ended. Interviews lasted between 30 and 75 minutes. They were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Questions focused around personal motivation of joining or attending Incubate, its characteristics and novel features, and internal as well as external organizational challenges (Table 8.1). Table 8.1. Data Overview. Data Source Observations Documents Interviews Time period March 2010–October 2018 April 2018–September 2018 Description of data Observing participant at 8 conferences, 28 local events, 4 webinars, and over 220 skype and google hangout meetings In-process and final documents for internal and external use as well as digital materials such as basecamp notes, WhatsApp group messages, pictures, videos, and email exchanges. Newspaper articles, website texts, blog posts, book chapters, and social media material 20 Semi-structured interviews and informal conversations Analysis insights for Noting internal struggles and external perception around novelty of organizational form, capturing institutional context and developments Obtaining personal views, narratives, and examples of organizational struggles Data Analysis Given the first author's deep familiarity with the case, we approached Incubate as a hybrid that combines aspects of religion, community, and market. Following established procedures for qualitative analysis (Gioia, Corley, & Hamilton, 2013), we hence started by categorizing references to these incompatible prescriptions and their underlying logics. However, we quickly noted the large number of references to Incubate as "something different"; difficult to capture, comprehend, and explain. Our interest thus shifted from focusing on incompatible institutional demands toward the novelty of the hybrid form. Internally, people struggled to codify the organization and externally, people found it hard to fit Incubate into existing institutional templates, typically referring to it as "something cool" or "something novel." This stage of data analysis thus consisted of identifying when our notes, interviewees and documents referred to aspects of novelty, strangeness, or uniqueness. This insight inspired the next round of coding with a focus on how Incubate engaged with novelty. This produced the first-order categories related to how the organization recombined substance: commerce, community, and conviction, as well as its hybrid mode of delivery: analog and digital. We then grouped first-order categories together into second-order themes to conceptualize more abstractly how the organization approached novelty distinguishing between an internal and external focus. As we realized that certain practices primarily stabilized a status quo, while others were shifting it, we ordered them not only along an internal and external difference, but also whether they were forming or transforming practices. In a final stage, we thus grouped these into four aggregate dimensions: codifying the new form, crafting novel templates, conforming to established forms, and configuring the institutional environment, respectively. The former two are internally focused practices, while the latter are externally focused practices. Also, codifying and conforming are forming, while crafting and configuring are transforming practices (Fig. 8.1). Opens in a new window.Fig. 8.1. Engaging with Novelty of Hybrid Forms. Findings Incubate self-describes as a "Muslim social incubator" that uses both analog and digital means (doc). It asserts to be "the first platform for social entrepreneurship from Muslims for society" (doc). At the time of founding, four of the seven co-founders did not live in Germany. Looking at German society from a distance made them "wistful and yet disconcerted" (doc) and sparked the desire to give back. They crystallized three key tasks: (1) provide a platform for socially engaged Muslims to connect; (2) professionalize and strengthen Muslim engagement; and (3) make existing engagement more visible to the public and to central actors outside the Muslim community (doc). In delivering those tasks, one interviewee explained, the focus on socio-religious concerns (substance) arose out of their own desirability, but reliance on digital delivery (mode) was borne out of necessity as talent was dispersed (int). Challenges of Novelty Discussions and interviews revealed the dual challenge early supporters faced when explaining Incubate to others. Initially, the organization was simply unknown ("unbekannt"), yet increasing familiarity created also unease ("Unbehagen"). As one interviewee reported: I am often asked: what is Incubate and what does Incubate do? Is it a Muslim organization? What is its purpose? Even after explaining what we do and how we do it, I can see in the eyes that there often remains this questioning look. (int) Yet, as another recalled, a "questioning look" would only be part of the problem: Sometimes, when I explain Incubate to Non-Muslims, I know …, I mean, I am certain that the other party just thinks: come on, you are really just a bunch of Islamists in disguise. All this social entrepreneurship stuff really is just a façade. (int) The
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