Boundary permeability and online–offline hybrid organization: A case study of Suning, China

This paper discusses the process of combining online and offline business units into a hybrid organization. While most previous studies focus on public–private hybridization, this study focuses on the online–offline type and discusses the combining process from the perspective of boundary permeability. By using Suning as a case study, we explore how a large retailer combines its online and offline units. The process model demonstrates that an online–offline hybrid organization is hybridized through three multiple and conflicting boundary permeability paths, namely complete, partial, and preventive permeability paths. Each path includes a capacity-seeking process in which the organization improves its capabilities after developing strategies. Corresponding to the three paths, the organization develops absorptive, symbiotic, and preservative strategies. It then enhances its capabilities accordingly, including its assimilative, ambidextrous, and autonomous capabilities, to implement the necessary boundary permeability behaviors and form a hybrid organization.