How are Competing Logics Combined in Managerial Teams? The Impact of Branch Founding Team Hybridity on the Growth of Islamic Bank Branches in Turkey, 2002-19

Hybrid staffing - i.e., composing a workforce with individuals with oppositional institutional logics - is a strategy organizations can use to navigate through complex institutional environments. We propose that hybrid teams led by individuals with the legitimate logic from the perspective of the target audiences (conformist-led hybrids) will outperform all-conformist, non-hybrid teams, and that hybrid teams led by individuals with the contested logic (alien-led hybrids) will underperform non-hybrid teams. Moreover, the performance advantage of conformist-led hybrids will be attenuated by ideological polarization and demographic stability of the embedding community, and the performance disadvantage of alien-led hybrids will be exacerbated by these two community characteristics. We tested our multilevel contingency model with the newly founded Islamic bank branches in Turkey in 2002-19. We found that the conformist-led hybrids had a growth advantage over non-hybrids, and alien-led hybrids had a growth disadvantage, especially when the embedding communities were ideologically polarized. Theoretical implications are discussed.