Summary: 
To solve society’s most urgent challenges—from climate change to inequality—we need more than innovation; we need transformation. This Special Issue in the Journal of Management Studies introduces a new framework—Shape up!, Shake up!, and Shift up!—to explain how hybrid organizations evolve from internal practices to boundary-breaking partnerships, ultimately driving systemic change.  

Welcome to the age of transformational hybridity. 

Tackling Grand Challenges Requires More Than Good Intentions 

Grand challenges like poverty, food insecurity, and climate change demand bold, collective action. Social enterprises, nonprofits, governments, and businesses have long experimented with hybrid models that blend profit with purpose. But are these efforts transformational—or just well-meaning? 

In our Special Issue for the Journal of Management Studies, we argue that hybridity—when intentionally practiced and strategically scaled—can go far beyond organizational tinkering. It can reshape industries, redefine relationships, and trigger systemic change. We call this transformational hybridity: the deliberate use of hybrid practices and partnerships to produce positive change not only within organizations, but across entire sectors and societies. Transformational hybridity means designing business models and governance systems that fuse social and commercial goals, building coalitions that cross traditional boundaries, and catalyzing policy shifts that redefine what counts as “success” in economic and social terms. 

From Hybrid Practices to Societal Impact 

Our framework identifies three recursive mechanisms that propel transformation across levels: 

• Shape up! – Organizations and cross-sector partnerships develop new hybridity practices—that is, ways of working that fuse different logics (such as profit and purpose, or efficiency and inclusion). These may involve innovative hiring practices, dual-purpose business models, or decision-making routines that prioritize both financial viability and social equity.  

• Shake up! – These practices begin to alter hybridity boundaries—the social and institutional lines that divide people, sectors, and organizations. For instance, a nonprofit may partner with a business in ways that challenge assumptions about who belongs at the table and what goals matter. This can reshape professional identities, equalize power dynamics, and foster unexpected alliances. 

• Shift up! – When hybridity practices and boundaries recursively interact, they may drive societal transformation—such as new norms around sustainability, reformed regulatory frameworks, or cultural shifts in how we understand value, purpose, and success. 

Unlike traditional accounts of hybridity that focus narrowly on internal tensions, our approach emphasizes the interplay across levels—how everyday practices and relationships can ultimately transform the systems in which they are embedded. 

What Does This Look Like in Practice? 

The eight papers in this Special Issue bring the framework to life: 

• Shape up!: In the UK, charities struggling with declining public funding reimagined board governance to incorporate commercial logics without losing their social mission. By recruiting trustees with diverse backgrounds and realigning expectations, they developed new hybrid practices that helped ensure financial sustainability and mission fidelity. 

• Shake up!: In Germany, a social enterprise engaged business partners in “purpose borrowing”—encouraging them to adopt social aims even when these conflicted with short-term economic gain. This challenged entrenched sectoral boundaries and demonstrated how relational governance can rewire traditional incentives. 

• Shift up!: In Switzerland, a hybrid organization designed a reusable cup system that brought together environmental groups, policymakers, and waste authorities. What began as a localized effort shifted municipal waste policy and redefined the market for takeaway containers—an example of small-scale hybridity catalyzing systemic change. 

These examples illustrate not only where hybridity occurs, but how it accumulates and amplifies over time. They also show that transformational hybridity often begins with practical problem-solving and culminates in new institutional logics. 

Why This Matters Now 

We live in an age of compounding crises. Traditional models—profit-maximizing firms, siloed nonprofits, and rigid government programs—struggle to keep up. Hybridity offers a way forward, not by diluting institutional identities, but by recombining them to unlock new possibilities for collaboration and change. 

But hybridity isn’t inherently good. It can drift, distort, or entrench existing power structures. That’s why we focus on transformational hybridity—not hybridity for hybridity’s sake, but hybridity that intentionally shapes, shakes, and shifts toward public good. 

Call to Action: Research, Practice, and Policy 

If you’re a scholar, we invite you to explore how hybrid practices and boundaries evolve across contexts—from disaster zones to corporate boardrooms. What practices sustain hybridity under pressure? What partnerships catalyze broader societal effects? 

If you’re a practitioner, consider how your organization might extend its impact beyond operational success. For example, could a local food co-op redesign its governance to include low-income members, reshaping both business decisions and community engagement? Could a healthcare nonprofit launch a revenue-generating venture that reinvests profits into underserved populations? 

And if you’re a policymaker, ask how hybrid structures—laws, incentives, or cross-sector platforms—can support broader change. For instance, procurement rules could reward ventures that deliver both public value and financial sustainability, or regulatory frameworks could enable “benefit corporations” that legally prioritize social goals. 

Let’s move from managing tensions to mobilizing transformation!