Hybrid Social Enterprise: Collective Action, Identity, and Hybrid Business Models

Hybrid social enterprises (HSE), firms organizing with the purpose of simultaneously creating social welfare and economic profit, have experienced explosive growth entering the first decades of the 21st Century. An increasing number of organizations that blur the distinction between social and business sectors are emerging. However, the long-term implications of HSE are not yet known. In this dissertation, I illuminate each of the above issues by addressing the overarching research question: How are hybrid social enterprises created, legitimated, and sustained? Specifically, I examine: 1) How and why is HSE emerging as a new kind of organizational form? 2) What causes firms and individuals to engage in HSE? and, 3) What are the performance implications for those firms that do