Hands, hearts and hybrids: economic organization, individual motivation and public benefit

Julian Le Grand and Jonathan Roberts

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Should policy makers rely upon firms motivated by profit and guided by the invisible hand of the market to promote public benefit or upon government agencies or nonprofits motivated by the compassionate heart? In this article we examine how the motivational assumptions implicit in these forms of economic organisation impact on their ability to promote the public good in key areas of the economy. We argue that in many circumstances it would be better to for policy makers to work with hybrid organisations: organisations that aim for both social and economic returns and whose stakeholders display the true complexity of individual motivation.

Keywords: hybrid; social enterprise; purpose-driven corporation; profit-maximisation; motivation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-03-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hpe
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in LSE Public Policy Review, 5, March, 2021, 1(3). ISSN: 2633-4046

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/117335/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:117335

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().