Affordance of conciliation: increasing the social impact of hybrid organizations

Abstract

PurposeHybrid organizations offer an innovative approach to promote social impact. However, hybrids face the challenge of reconciling the dual mission (social/financial). The purpose is to understand how hybrids and information and communication technologies (ICT) interact, unveiling opportunities ICT offers for hybrids regarding the dual mission.Design/methodology/approachWe used affordance theory and adopted a predominantly inductive approach inspired by the so-called “Gioia template.” The research design was based on semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs, specialists, and people working in institutes, foundations, and accelerators, i.e. social actors operating in the hybrid organizational ecosystem in Brazil.FindingsOur findings suggest that the affordances of the relationship between organizational and ICT resources act as facilitators. A theoretical contribution is conceptualizing “affordance of conciliation,” indicating how ICT resources might facilitate achieving social/financial goals, thus minimizing efforts to reconcile mission duality. Furthermore, we list categories and aggregate dimensions and elucidate how results aligned with goals are generated through the process-based model. We show that ICT has a significant role in helping hybrids overcome challenges.Originality/valueOur results extend affordance theory with theoretical and practical implications. We highlight fundamental components that contribute to proposing the new concept of “affordance of conciliation.” We contribute to information systems literature by better understanding the social interactions between ICT and hybrids. Finally, we help hybrids understand the support of ICT resources to fulfill their dual mission.