The Strategic Evolution of Institutional Logics Across Social Entrepreneurial Process: A Multiple Case Study

Although a hybrid logic is widely recognized as the best institutional logic for social enterprises, why and how such a hybrid logic works for social enterprises is under-explored. Based on the institutional logic theory, we conduct a multiple-case study to investigate how and why the two competing logics are combined to form a hybrid logic during social entrepreneurial process. Data are collected from the in-depth semi-structured interviews with social entrepreneurs from three leading social enterprises in China. We categorize a hybrid logic model as a dominant logic model, which includes a social-dominant logic model and a commercial-dominant logic model, and an equality of dual logic model. We find that the adoption of a hybrid logic is affected by the type of a social enterprise and the motivation to acquire different legitimacy. Specifically, an integrated social enterprise adopts a commercial-dominant logic model while an external social enterprise employs a social-dominant logic model to achieve sustainability. An embedded social enterprise can adopt an equality of dual logic model from its establishment. Our study contributes to research on strategic social entrepreneurship by revealing the dynamic relationship among different types of social enterprises, the adoption of a hybrid logic at different entrepreneurial stages, the motivation to acquire different legitimacy, and business outcomes.