Hybridity for collaborative value creation

Abstract

Collaboration, networks, or other partnered efforts represent hybrid forms of social impact organizing. This chapter suggests that hybrid organizing can create collaborative value that is simultaneously social and economic. Research from entrepreneurs, religious congregations, nonprofits in cross-sector partnerships, and other contexts shows how social impact organizers work across diverse stakeholder interests and elaborate on benefits and challenges in collaboration. Collaboration provides opportunities to diversify events, absorb thinking from other organizational fields, inspire new ideas, and expand organizational capacity and reach. Examples highlight how nonprofits, businesses, governments, and communities co-create solutions that address complex social challenges. Ultimately, collaborative value creation depends on trust, alignment, and communication practices that support sustained hybridity.