The Hybrid Nature of Social Enterprises - Exploring possible tensions and sources of mission drift

In this interesting time that we live in, where markets and governments start to fail at their promises of prosperity for all, we are witnessing the rise of hybrid structures that pursue the contradictory objectives of social impact and business sustainability. This MA thesis identifies the tensions caused by hybridity within social enterprises, that combine organizational forms, identities and logics belonging to the business and the charity/NGO world. Such a combination undoubtedly entails intrinsic tensions that can later result in “mission drift” or “goal displacement” - which this thesis understands as a situation where a social venture starts to give less priority to either its social or commercial goal. In a second part, this thesis analyses how certain organizational & environmental features can alleviate or increase those internal tensions, and be possible sources of mission drift for the social venture. Using a qualitative approach, this research draws on interviews conducted with a diverse range of social entrepreneurs, most of whom have links with the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship network and the Acumen fund.