Abstract
This study investigates characteristics of three types of hybrid organizations—business cooperatives, mutual companies and state-owned enterprises—and explores to what extent hybrid organizations’ original social mission still guides their respective affairs. The study is based on various types of data, and the overall approach is qualitative and explorative. It finds that organizational legacy plays an important role in managerial texts communicated by hybrid organizations in response to expectations on social responsibility. Legacy seems to be of particular strategic importance for business cooperatives and mutual companies when organizational, justifying their position as ‘different’ to ordinary corporations. State-owned enterprises seem to be less dependent on legacy for building legitimacy. The political order forces these hybrids to adopt new goals in line with current governmental goals and hence be more forward-looking like ordinary limited corporations.