Value creation among hybrids

Abstract

The valuation of economic and social action is by no means a straightforward task. Furthermore, it is particularly complicated to link value creation mechanisms to the institutional contexts where value is enacted. This chapter fills this research gap by exploring the dissonance of value creation in the context of hybridity. By hybridity, we refer to the interface of public, private and civil society forms of institutional action through distinct modes of ownership, parallel but competing institutional logics, a diverse funding base and various forms of social control. We associate the plethora of value concepts and value creation mechanisms with the settings of hybridity, where value has a polysemic character and where institutions and actors should be able to provide several categories of value simultaneously: value for society, taxpayers and the public, as well as value for customers and shareholders. We provide a broad overview of value creation mechanisms as forms of “doing value.” The chapter concludes with three essential forms of value creation in hybrid settings, namely, mixing, compromising and legitimising, which are inextricably intertwined with the fundamental characteristics of hybridity and hybrid organisations. It also discusses the ways in which value creation efforts in those contexts can be explored.