There is wide agreement about the potential for hybridity – the combination of plural organizational forms – to address complex societal grand challenges. Unfortunately, advancements in this area have been unduly constrained by the fragmentation of research along the organizational unit of analysis. This Special Issue advances research by offering a framework that bridges hybridity research across the organizational, inter‐organizational, and societal levels of analysis. We introduce a framework of transformational hybridity based on three interlinked mechanisms that drive societal transformation across different levels – Shape up! , Shake up! , and Shift up! Shape up! involves changes in organizational and inter‐organizational hybridity practices. In turn, Shake up! involves changes in hybridity boundaries through organizational and inter‐organizational arrangements. Through interplay, these two mechanisms may bring about Shift up! , a societal transformation that addresses a grand challenge. Taken together, this Special Issue paves the road for novel research directions and equips scholars and practitioners alike with a multi‐level lens for tackling societal grand challenges through transformational hybridity.

Traditional management practices have long prioritized organizational performance and financial growth, primarily serving shareholder interests. However, escalating societal and environmental challenges - such as climate change, human rights violations, the dismantling of democratic institutions, and public health crises - raise questions about the adequacy of these priorities and call for greater attention to management's role in advancing the public good. This Special Issue examines the relationships, tensions, and consequences associated with efforts to repurpose management towards broader societal aims. We distinguish between organizational purpose - the stated aspirational goals of firms - and repurposed management, which reflects broader shifts in managerial logic, practices, and institutional expectations aimed at serving the public good. The contributing articles explore how such repurposing is constructed and enacted across institutional settings, and how managerial practices influence governance structures, stakeholder dynamics, and field-level norms to shape public outcomes - both intended and unintended. By shifting the analytical lens from purpose as internal intent to purpose as institutionally mediated consequence, we invite more inquiry into how, when, and for whom purposeful management contributes to the public good - foregrounding the institutional mechanisms, stakeholder dynamics, and societal outcomes through which purpose is interpreted, negotiated and enacted.

Purpose Harmonizing religion and economic pursuits is treacherous because mixing the two rarely resonate with consumers, often resulting consumers’ greed perceptions. This paper aims to explore the antecedents and consequence of consumers’ greed perceptions in the context of for-profit religious-affiliated companies (FPRCs) and how they can harmonize religious and commercial missions by using different ad types (direct vs indirect appeal). Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted two experiments: Study 1 was an online experiment with participants from the USA collected through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk ( n = 410) to reveal the overall mechanism. Study 2 was a field experiment ( n = 292) to corroborate Study 1’s findings. The authors analyzed the data using a multigroup structural equation model. Findings First, consumers perceive greed against FPRCs’ dual identities incurred by their commercial activities. Second, when FPRCs obscure their religious identities by using third-party organizations (TPOs) as its promoter (i.e. indirect appeal), consumers’ greed perceptions decline, but this does not increase consumers’ future patronage intentions. Finally, in online and field experiments, consumers enhance their purchase intentions and behavior, respectively, under indirect appeal. Research limitations/implications First, further investigation of the cognitive dissonance mechanism when consumers face seemingly contradictory identities of organizations is crucial to identify bottlenecks in promoting FPRCs’ commercial offerings. Second, examining boundary conditions of indirect appeal is important to enhance our understanding of FPRCs’ advertising, such as consumers’ awareness of TPOs’ intentionality. Lastly, not every type of indirect appeal brings the same effects. Future studies may explore diverse forms of indirect appeal, such as using artificial intelligence-based algorithms without TPOs. Practical implications Despite heightened interest in supporting dual missions (i.e. purpose and profit), this study shows why doing well while doing good is inherently challenging in practice creating marketing liability. To deal with this, the present findings suggest that, first, rather than exposing an FPRC’s religious (or communal) identity upfront, providing subtle cues through a TPO of its religious affiliation can be persuasive to win the hearts of target customers. Second, given the short-term effectiveness of indirect appeal, FPRCs need to use both direct and indirect appeal flexibly, as each type of ad delivers a distinctive advantage. Lastly, indirect appeal is particularly effective in offline promotional activities in the context of FPRCs. Originality/value First, by meshing paradox theory, the authors show that dual identities of FPRCs expose them to a marketing liability that single-mission enterprises rarely face. Second, when FPRCs use indirect appeal, they face a tradeoff between mitigating greed perception and securing future patronage. Third, results from the online experiment and field experiment show when consumers’ intention and actual behavior align.

Control and trust issues are at the heart of collaboration in and between organizations. In this introduction to the Special Issue (SI) on the control-trust dynamics, we first propose an integrative framework to take stock of the main themes discussed in both the micro and macro literature. We then contextualize how the papers in this issue flesh out key mechanisms underlying the interplay between control and trust over time. The remainder of the introduction highlights directions for future research by refining and extending our understanding of control and trust as mechanisms of collaboration across levels of analysis. Our future research suggestions are organized around the main building blocks of control-trust research: (1) constructs, (2) interactions, (3) actors, (4) temporal dynamics, (5) outcomes, and (6) context.

Spirituality, Entrepreneurship and Social Change Rethinking Entrepreneurial Leadership for Compassionate Change Presenter: Elena P. Antonacopoulou; GNOSIS INSTITUTE Presenter: Regina F. Bento; U. of Baltimore Organizations with a Buddhist Ethos – A Path to Sustainability? Presenter: Sashika Abeydeera; U. of Colombo Presenter: Kate N. Kearins; Auckland U. of Technology Presenter: Helen Tregidga; AUT U. How Do Spiritual Values Inform Entrepreneurial Action? Presenter: Srinath Dissanayake; U. of Waikato Presenter: Jenny Gibb; U. of Waikato The Role of Entrepreneurship and Spirituality in the Provision of Elective Social Enterprise Courses Presenter: Cherry Cheung; London South Bank U. Presenter: Caleb C Y. Kwong; U. of Essex Business School Presenter: Sujun Fieldhouse; Southend-On-Sea Borough Council Yoga Sutras and Spiritual Entrepreneurship Presenter: Anil K. Maheshwari; Maharishi U. of Management Harnessing Andean Spirituality to Improve Entrepreneurship Outcomes Presenter: Tamara Stenn; Landmark College

Business model research has grown into an insightful area of inquiry, and articles in the Journal of Management Studies (JMS) have greatly contributed to this topical area. This introductory article to the thematic collection of business model research offers an overview of the pertinent literature as well as foundational knowledge, so it is suitable for scholars who are familiar with the topic, but it is also helpful for those wishing to join the conversation. Business model research has thrived at the intersection of strategy, innovation management, and entrepreneurship studies. This body of research is characterized by both a bold vision to improve our understanding of the architecture and building blocks of business models as well as conceptual and empirical debates about the way forward in the digital age of continuing disruption, platformization, and ecosystem transformations. We suggest three promising areas for future research: business model portfolios, competitive dynamics between heterogeneous business models, and business model design for more sustainable economy.

Firms are embedded in networks of partners and rivals, so their operations and ultimate performance are influenced not only by their capabilities and strategies but also by the actions as well as interfirm ties among their direct and indirect partners and rivals. Despite this understanding, we still lack a theory to explain how collaborative relations among firms affect their competitive ties and vice versa. Moreover, under what conditions can firms foresee their future partners and rivals? Using temporal exponential random graph models (TERGM) fitted to a dataset including 4,679,697 dyad-year observations on 9,675 firms in 10 networks during a 13-year period, we identify several conditions under which firms develop collaborative and competitive ties. Together, these conditions guide scholars and managers which indirect partners and rivals today could become direct allies and competitors tomorrow.

How do family values endure decades after an enterprise is no longer a family business? Addressing this question has been a challenge in social theory, and it is an issue of particular concern for family businesses where firm and family values are often indistinguishable. We analyze the transmission of family, organizational, and religious values across generations in Cadbury, a multinational confectionary company founded in England in 1824. We identify sacralization as a central process that explains Cadbury’s success in transferring values across time and different organizational structures. We describe how sacralization is driven by moralization, communion, and syncretism.

Policymakers are regularly named as one of the targeted audiences of management research. However, Aguinis, Jensen, and Kraus (in press) found that policy implications are underutilized and not part of organizational behavior and human resource management’s zeitgeist because only 1.5% of the articles (i.e., N = 61) from a sample of journals included such issues. Consistent with the conference theme, the goal of our panel symposium is to discuss how together we create a better world—specifically by using management research for policymaking. To achieve this goal, our symposium includes panelists who are purposefully diverse in terms of research interests, ontological perspectives, and geographic location (i.e., combined, they are members of more than 10 different AOM Divisions). As such, panelists will address issues of interest to both micro and macro management researchers, and those from a range of disciplinary backgrounds. Again, the symposium will have both a past and a future orientation. Regarding the past, panelists will address existing research and theories that can be used for policymaking to create a better world; what worked, what did not work, and the limits and possibilities for reviving and renovating past policy options. We can certainly learn from policy successes and failures in the past, at the same time as considering novel policy options at firm, social, economic and governmental level in the future. Regarding the future, panelists will also address what research should be conducted (i.e., which topics, theories, types of research designs) so that results are useful for firm and societal policymaking that will result in creating a better world. Overall, we hope our symposium will serve as a catalyst for a better understanding of what types of management research-informed policies are useful for creating a world in which we will all be better off together.