Understanding logic tensions in hybrid organizations: a systematic literature review and research agenda

Abstract Hybrid organizations have emerged as a promising way of organizing to tackle complex societal challenges by combining elements from multiple organizational forms, each guided by distinct institutional logics. This blending of logics enables hybrids to pursue multiple goals, but it also gives rise to persistent tensions rooted in conflicting assumptions, values, and practices. While existing research has documented diverse manifestations of such tensions, a systematic explanation of the nature of tensions in hybrid organizations, their emergence, and how organizations respond to them remains underdeveloped. This paper addresses this gap through a systematic literature review and synthesis of 82 peer-reviewed studies. The review advances the concept of logic tensions as an integrative analytical construct. The findings show that logic tensions manifest across performing, organizing, and belonging tensions, emerge and intensify under specific internal and external conditions, and are navigated through a multitude of organizational responses. This review advances theory by positioning logic tensions as an inherent feature of hybridity and by offering an integrative framework that highlights the cycle of logic tensions within hybrid organizations. Multiple gaps for future research are identified through the integrative framework, which are summarized in a research agenda.