The literature on hybrid organizations has pointed out the existence of a vast heterogeneity in the degree to which those organizations combine social and/or environmental (S&E) missions with economic goals. Hybrid organizations that fully align the S&E mission with their economic activities – i.e., having an integrated business model – are those with a clear identity, able to communicate without ambiguity to stakeholders why, how, and for whom they are creating and delivering multiple forms of value. This unambiguous identity is a valuable means to support stakeholders' trust and engagement, which is a key condition for maintaining a hybrid nature over time. However, this alignment is far from a given, as it requires providing multiple forms of social, environmental, and economic value simultaneously. Further research is needed to understand how these organizations can be fully integrated. Drawing on the literature on sustainable business models (SBMs), we suggest that to effectively reach a complete alignment between S&E missions and economic activities, the combination of multiple and diverse sustainability activities is needed. Following an established methodology, we coded sustainability activities, S&E missions, and degree of integration for 437 European B corps. Through a csQCA analysis, we investigate combinations of different sustainability activities leading B corps to integrated business models. Five configurations for business model integration emerge: Born circular, Stakeholders and planet focus, Green products with purpose, Enabling sustainability, Energy KIBS. Our findings contribute to the literature on hybrid organizations by exploring which configurations of different sustainability activities are most likely to support hybrids in aligning S&E missions with economic goals.
