Dual-aim purpose strategies and organizational design solutions

Journal article, 2026

This paper advances theory on the strategic dimensions of corporate purpose by exploring how organizations design for a dual-aim purpose-pursuing both financial and pro-social objectives that are inherently in tension. While earlier research highlights purpose as a unifying force that motivates action and guides strategic decision-making, we examine its more complex and sometimes constraining role in strategy execution. Based on a two-decade-long study of Systembolaget, Sweden's state-owned alcohol retailer, we trace three organizational design strategies for enacting dual aims: accepting friction, avoiding friction, and removing friction. By introducing a framework that evaluates organizational designs through effectiveness, efficacy, efficiency, and effort, we highlight how organizational designs not only embody trade-offs but also require scaffolding mechanisms-dialogic practices, capability-building, and governance models-that enable continuous recalibration. Our findings contribute to strategy and organization theory by showing that purpose-driven duality demands a more granular theorization of contextual ambidexterity: from "dynamic shifting" between aims to "transcending" solutions that embed both simultaneously. While Systembolaget represents a special case, the challenges it faces mirror those confronting a growing number of organizations navigating the shift toward multi-dimensional measures of success.