Poor but so many: Inclusive growth through hybridity. Case of Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA)

Local contexts highly define and shape organizations and institutions (Weick, 1995; Weber & Glynn, 2006). These may be informal like cultural and social environment, or more formal like economic and political environment. Economic development is one of the category used to differentiate various nation states. This has led to a global classification into two major categories: Developed and Developing economies. A unique characteristic of developing economies is the lack of fully developed institutions (Mair & Marti, 2009; Khanna et. al., 2005). Absent or poorly developed institutions in such countries leads to restriction or even exclusion of many of its citizens from full market participation. Restriction from market participation also leads to economic downturn of these citizens eventually leading to socio-economic marginalization. While most of studies have looked at the ongoing role played by such individual or collective social enterprises, we know little about how can hybrid organizations leverage surprising events as opportunities for change and innovation? And in doing so, how hybrids can further change the structure and characteristics of an (institutional) field? And thus, as an outcome; what kind of society-level mechanisms hybrids can trigger to spread their effect and scale their operations? Thus, a deeper understanding needs to be developed by studying the various processes and strategies social enterprises adapt, right from i.) identifying the social issue they want to address, ii.) to various infrastructure they develop to not just increase the human capital of the community they work with but also sustain themselves, iii) and eventually lead to institutional change.