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Hybridity and Nonprofit Organizations: The Research Agenda

American Behavioral Scientist

Published online on

Abstract

The emergent research on hybrid organizations is complicated by three circumstances: (a) the assertion that every organization possesses traits of hybridity, (b) the difficulty of operationalizing sector intersections in research, and (c) the alienation of the research field from nonprofit theory. This article proposes a research agenda for the study of hybridity that relates more strongly to the latter. It results in questions of significant explanatory potential, for instance, How does hybridity relate to market failure? How are legitimacy, trust, and accountability ensured if the nondistribution constraint is being abandoned? Which form transitions and innovations are being produced by hybridity? These questions have to be reflected against a variety of welfare state concepts and policy tools, such as tax credits or contracts, that may be used to govern hybridity. This article furthermore suggests that research on hybridity would benefit from relating nonprofit theory to disciplinary approaches, such as institutional theory or organizational life cycles.