Protecting scientists from Gordon Gekko: how organizations use hybrid spaces to engage with multiple institutional logics
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Published version
Author(s)
Perkmann, M
McKelvey, Maureen
Phillips, Nelson
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Previous work on institutional complexity has discussed two solutions that organizations deploy internally when engaging externally with multiple institutional logics: blended hybrids where logics are combined throughout the organization, and structural hybrids where different logics dominate in different compartments within the organization. While blended hybrids have been extensively investigated, few studies have examined how structural hybrids are constructed and maintained. We address this imbalance by studying university-industry research centers as instances of distinct organizational spaces used to engage with a minority logic. We found that these spaces require three kinds of work: (a) leveraging, where dominant logic practices are drawn on to achieve minority logic objectives; (b) hybridizing, where the practices inside the space are modified to allow engagement with the minority logic; and (c) bolstering, where the space is shielded against excessive minority logic influence and anchored back into the organization. Furthermore, contrary to the existing literature we found that the spaces were hybrid, rather than being dominated by a single logic. Our finding is likely generalizable across many instances of structural hybrids given the integration problems that organizations with pure single logic spaces would face, combined with the usefulness of hybrid spaces. Our study is novel in revealing the work needed to sustain hybrid spaces and questioning the previously held conceptualization of structural hybrids as made up of single-logic compartments.
Date Issued
2019-03
Date Acceptance
2018-04-24
Citation
Organization Science, 2019, 30 (2), pp.298-318
ISSN
1047-7039
Publisher
INFORMS
Start Page
298
End Page
318
Journal / Book Title
Organization Science
Volume
30
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 InternationalLicense. You are free to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt this work, but you must attribute this workas“Organization Science. Copyright © 2018 The Author(s).https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2018.1228,usedunder a Creative Commons Attribution License:https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.”
Sponsor
Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC)
Identifier
https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10.1287/orsc.2018.1228
Grant Number
ES/G038082/1
Subjects
Social Sciences
Management
Business & Economics
institutional complexity
institutional logics
hybrid organizations
institutional theory
university-industry relations
BUSINESS MODELS
COMPLEXITY
INNOVATION
UNIVERSITY
ENTREPRENEURS
CONFORMITY
ECONOMICS
RESPONSES
INDUSTRY
SCIENCE
institutional complexity; institutional logics; hybrid organizations; institutional theory; university-industry relations
Business & Management
1503 Business and Management
1505 Marketing
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2018-11-26