Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • December 2010
  • Article
  • Academy of Management Journal

Building Sustainable Hybrid Organizations: The Case of Commercial Microfinance Organizations

By: Julie Battilana and Silvia Dorado
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:22
ShareBar

Abstract

We explore how new types of hybrid organizations (organizations that combine institutional logics in unprecedented ways) can develop and maintain their hybrid nature in the absence of a "ready-to-wear" model for handling the tensions between the logics they combine. The results of our comparative study of two pioneering commercial microfinance organizations suggest that to be sustainable, new types of hybrid organizations need to create a common organizational identity that strikes a balance between the logics they combine. Our evidence further suggests that the crucial early levers for developing such an organizational identity among organizational members are hiring and socialization policies.

Keywords

Organizational Structure; Microfinance; Growth and Development Strategy; Identity; Commercialization; Balance and Stability; Policy; Recruitment; Business Model

Citation

Battilana, Julie, and Silvia Dorado. "Building Sustainable Hybrid Organizations: The Case of Commercial Microfinance Organizations." Academy of Management Journal 53, no. 6 (December 2010): 1419–1440.
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Purchase

About The Author

Julie Battilana

Organizational Behavior
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • April 2024
    • Academy of Management Journal

    An Integrative Model of Hybrid Governance: The Role of Boards in Helping Sustain Organizational Hybridity

    By: Anne-Claire Pache, Julie Battilana and Channing Spencer
    • June, 2023
    • Strategy Science

    Walking the Purpose-Talk Inside a Large Company: Sustainable Product Development as an Instance of Divergent Change

    By: Marissa Kimsey, Thijs Geradts and Julie Battilana
    • December 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn: The Power of Writing to Launch and Sustain a Movement

    By: Lakshmi Ramarajan, Julie Battilana and Rachel Tropp
More from the Authors
  • An Integrative Model of Hybrid Governance: The Role of Boards in Helping Sustain Organizational Hybridity By: Anne-Claire Pache, Julie Battilana and Channing Spencer
  • Walking the Purpose-Talk Inside a Large Company: Sustainable Product Development as an Instance of Divergent Change By: Marissa Kimsey, Thijs Geradts and Julie Battilana
  • Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn: The Power of Writing to Launch and Sustain a Movement By: Lakshmi Ramarajan, Julie Battilana and Rachel Tropp
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College.