Hybridizing the Triple Helix: A prerequisite for managing wicked issues

Abstract

Striving to meet the challenges facing our society today, there is a growth in the number of cross-sector collaboration. Expectations on these organizations are high in terms of their ability to deliver innovative solutions to wicked issues, but the task is challenging. This study contributes to our understanding of Triple Helix constellations and their ability to take on challenges related to complex and wicked issues. Even if research on hybrid organization is quite extensive, our understanding of how organizations hybridize is still scarce. With a holistic perspective on hybridity, as a point of departure, the purpose in this study is to analyze hybridization in order to investigate to what extent an organization recognize hybridity and adapt strategy and processes in order to exploit hybridity and use it as a source of creativity and innovation. We answer the purpose by combining research on hybrid organization with research on strategy and boundary spanning activities and by analyzing an organization's hybridizing process, using a case study approach. The study contributes to existing research on organizational hybridity theoretically as well as empirically.