Socio-cognitive Traits of Social Entrepreneurs and Organisational Hybridity: The Moderating Role of Contextual Factors

Abstract

Hybrid organisations often combine multiple logics, forms, and identities that are often difficult to reconcile. As a classic example of a hybrid organisation, social enterprises have the explicit aim of fulfilling a social purpose while achieving financial sustainability. They combine aspects of business with charity, thereby representing a unique organisational form. With a decrease in donations and grants and increased focus on self-sustainable organisation, hybrid social enterprises have become key for carrying out social development activities. These organisations combine multiple objectives to varying degrees, thereby representing innovative organisations with multiple goals. Such hybrid organisations confront issues related to resource allocation, establishing appropriate legal structures, acquiring resources, establishing legitimacy, and sustaining financial sustainability. Further, these organisations encounter challenges with member identification, which makes organisational stability difficult. Despite these challenges, we see the proliferation of hybrid organisations across different domains. This thesis addresses this paradox by exploring the impact of individual-level factors on the degree of hybridity of social enterprises. Further, it investigate how contextual factors moderate the relationship between individual factors and the degree of hybridity of social enterprises. Specifically, this thesis had the following objectives in this thesis: a) To explore the impact of the founder’s individual factors on the degree of hybridity of social enterprises. b) To explore the moderating role of contextual (cultural, institutional and market-related) factors on the relationship between individual factors and the degree of hybridity of social enterprises. This thesis has explored this research question by drawing on socio-cognitive theory, institution-based perspectives, and industry-based perspectives to explain variation in the degree of hybridity of social enterprises. Specifically, the thesis considers individual-level socio-cognitive factors of the social entrepreneur, such as opportunity recognition, perceived self-efficacy, and fear of failure, consistent with socio-cognitive theory’s emphasis on how cognitive evaluations shape entrepreneurial behaviour and decision-making. Further, it incorporates institutional-level factors such as post-materialism and state fragility, informed by institution-based perspectives which suggest that entrepreneurial action is shaped by formal and informal institutional environments. Finally, the thesis considers industry-level factors such as market dynamism, drawing on industry-based perspectives that emphasize the role of competitive and environmental conditions in shaping organizational behaviour and strategic responses. These perspectives are important because prior research suggests that organizational creation and strategic orientation are influenced not only by individual-level cognition, but also by broader institutional and industry contexts. The data were collected from secondary sources, including the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, the World Values Survey, the World Governance Indicators Database, and the Heritage Foundation Database. The final sample comprised 3045 observations from 28 countries, yielding an average of 108 per country. Since this thesis includes individual-level characteristics and country-level factors, I employed multilevel modelling to test the hypothesis. The results suggest that individual socio-cognitive factors of social entrepreneurs affect the degree of hybridity of the organisation, and these relationships are contingent upon contextual factors such as postmaterialism, state fragility, and market dynamism. This thesis makes several theoretical contributions. First, it extends opportunity-based and cognitive perspectives in entrepreneurship into the context of hybrid social enterprises by showing how socio-cognitive traits influence not only entrepreneurial action but also the degree of hybridity within organizations. Second, it advances understanding of the emotional foundations of hybrid organizing by demonstrating the constraining role of fear of failure on hybridity. Third, by examining the moderating roles of institutional and market conditions, the thesis develops a multilevel and contextually embedded understanding of hybrid organizing. Finally, the thesis contributes to the hybrid organization literature by conceptualizing hybridity as a matter of degree rather than as a fixed organizational type, thereby accounting for heterogeneity among social enterprises. Overall, the findings suggest that the emergence and development of hybridity are relational and contingent phenomena arising from the interaction between entrepreneurial agency and contextual conditions. The thesis also offers practical implications for social entrepreneurs and policymakers seeking to foster sustainable and contextually responsive social enterprises.