How Hybrid Institutional Logics Matter: The Importance of Trust and Embeddedness in Neighborhood Revitalization Collaborations

Abstract

This study applied an institutional logics framework to examine issues that challenged revitalization efforts in three distressed neighborhoods in an urban Midwest U.S. city. Specifically, it examined whether emergent hybrid (organizational) logics influenced multiple disconnected partnerships and collaborations. Thematic analyses were conducted on data from 39 semi-structured interviews conducted in two phases (n = 11 and n = 28, respectively). The interviewees were from the public, private, academia, and faith-based sectors and included interventions that impacted food insecurity, education, health, the built environment, crime, and substance and alcohol abuse. The findings showed the importance of trust as a hybrid logic impacting collaborations at multiple levels; we link this to additional findings on the level of structural embeddedness in the studied neighborhoods. The findings support the need for public health and community leaders to address gaps in trust/embeddedness in order to improve the success of community interventions. Practitioners and future researchers can apply the concept of hybrid institutional logics in the analysis of neighborhood collaborations, especially when there are multiple collaborations involving partners from different sectors.