Unpacking Hybrid Organizing in a Born Green Entrepreneurial Company

Jay Sheppard and Maral Mahdad
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Jay Sheppard: Marine Energy Wales, Pembroke SA72 6TR, UK
Maral Mahdad: Business, Management and Organization Group, Department of Social Sciences, Wageningen University and Research, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 20, 1-30

Abstract: The role green businesses can play in a transition to a more sustainable society is an emergent area of questioning that has attracted the attention of both environmental and business academics. Different disciplines have contributed to a growing base of literature, yet a few key gaps exist, such as how green companies balance economic and environmental concerns and how green businesses operate as hybrid organizations. Utilizing ethnographic tools including observations and semi-structured interviews, this study closely analyses a born green company. The study attempts to identify how the green entrepreneurial company creates and captures environmental, economic, and social value as well as how these three types of value are interrelated. The study refrains from economic quantification of environmental and social value, instead focusing on identifiable instances of value creation and capture. This is conducted out of a recognition of non-substitutability concerns to give equal footing to different forms of value, therefore, avoiding some of the economic biases present in previous research. It is suggested that environmental and economic value can have a complementing or competing relationship depending on how the business uses its resources. A four-stage model is proposed, highlighting how this reflexive and dynamic relationship can influence firm performance. The potential benefits of social value creation by green businesses are identified as an overlooked and under-researched area that could have a significant impact on firm performance. Built on the nexus of hybrid organizations and green entrepreneurship, this study contributes to theory and practice by unpacking hybrid ways of creating and capturing value.

Keywords: hybrid organizing; green entrepreneurship; hybridity; value creation; value capture; sustainability; environmental value; social value; economic value; hybrid value proposition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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