How Hybrids Manage Growth and Social–Business Tensions in Global Supply Chains: The Case of Impact Sourcing

Chacko G. Kannothra, Stephan Manning, Nardia Haigh

Journal of Business Ethics · 2018 · Volume 148 · Issue 2

Abstract

This study contributes to the growing interest in how hybrid organizations manage paradoxical social–business tensions. Our empirical case is “impact sourcing”—hybrids in global supply chains that hire staff from disadvantaged communities to provide services to business clients. We identify two major growth orientations—“community-focused” and “client-focused” growth—their inherent tensions and ways that hybrids manage them. The former favors slow growth and manages tensions through highly integrated client and community relations; the latter promotes faster growth and manages client and community relations separately. Both growth orientations address social–business tensions in particular ways, but also create latent constraints that manifest when entrepreneurial aspirations conflict with the current growth path. In presenting and discussing our findings, we introduce preempting management practices of tensions, and the importance of geographic embeddedness and distance to the paradox literature.

Keywords

Paradox theory, Outsourcing, Hybrid organizations, Inclusive development, Social entrepreneurship

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