Exploring Hybridity in Digital Social Entrepreneurship

In this paper we introduce the concept of Digital Social Entrepreneurship (DSE), which refers to the entrepreneurial work of social ventures centred on digital technologies. DSE presents one particular form of hybridity, related to the need to blend digital and non-digital capabilities in the same organisational unit. To understand how such capabilities come together we draw on a qualitative case study of an Indian digital platform providing microloans to vulnerable borrowers. Using concepts from the literature on organisational hybridity, we identify three mechanisms – centred on activity integration, selective framing, and enactment of new operational practices – through which digital and non-digital capabilities are blended in DSE. The paper contributes to the emerging theorisation of the role of the digital in social entrepreneurship and draws implications for it to contribute to tackling global societal challenges.

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