Hybrid Organizing for Collaborative Delivery of Real Estate Development Projects in China

Nowadays, Chinese real estate firms (CREFs) are facing challenges of tightened financing criteria, raised prices of land use rights, and increased industrial concentration. In response to market changes, more and more CREFs are involved in collaborative delivery through project-based joint ventures (JVs). However, when influenced by pluralistic delivering logics, the JVs’ internal operations can be hard to understand, and their behaviour may be difficult to predict. This paper uses institutional theory and hybrid organizing as a theoretical framework to explore how JVs coordinate and integrate their resources and competencies, as well as govern tensions between competing logics. In doing so, we first use a broad literature review and field interviews to capture institutional logics embodied in the Chinese real estate sector. As a result, two logics (i.e., mass production and unit production) and the underpinned practices are refined. Secondly, based on the case of CREF- Gemdale, we further investigate how the JV-Gemdale’s organizational structure, activities, and processes are assembled and mobilized during the collaborative delivery. In particular, we show that, instead of integration or differentiation approaches, as the literature typically suggests, JVs can selectively hybrid organize elements prescribed by competing logics. Subsequently, this paper further explores the manifestations of tensions and how the JV-Gemdale responds to them. The result shows that tensions and responses are influenced by how JVs selectively hybrid organize. Overall, our findings theoretically contribute to a better understanding of how project-based organizations navigate in pluralistic institutional environments.