Tensions at the margins of change: Re-discovering hybridity in the digitalisation of social enterprises

This article draws on theories of hybridity in social entrepreneurship, institutional logics, and technology-associated organisational change to develop a novel framework for analysing how digitalisation affects hybridity and internal tensions in social enterprises. Based on an action research study in a UK-based social enterprise, our findings reveal that digitalisation functions as a set of new strategic practices that disrupt existing institutional logics and trigger profound organisational changes. This form of institutional disruption destabilises established hybrid balances. These dynamics generate internal tensions – rooted in divergent digital literacies, competing mission recognition, and identity misalignments – which ultimately lead to resistance and the marginalisation of digitalisation. Our study advances understanding of digitalisation as a contested and complex socio-technical process in social enterprises and highlights its often-overlooked ‘dark side’.