Maintaining legitimacy in contested mature markets through discursive strategies: The case of corporate environmentalism in the French automotive industry

Market-level studies based on institutional theory have gained prominence in recent marketing research seeking to investigate legitimation dynamics. Although these studies have paid particular attention to how organizations build legitimacy in new markets, they have rarely explored legitimations strategies in mature markets, which mostly remain the prerogative of organizational theory. Such emphasis on new markets is thus limiting our understanding of legitimation dynamics in general and legitimacy maintenance in particular, especially since new and mature markets have different characteristics. When markets are well established, they tend to become the target of a growing number of contestations by actors seeking to introduce new societal issues. Once these issues have been institutionalized, organizations must address them to maintain their legitimacy. In this study, we investigate the discursive strategies used by the French carmakers when environmental considerations gained prominence between 2006 and 2008. In contrast to prior works in organizational theory which assume that organizations respond to institutional pressures in an undifferentiated way, our results show that organizations adopt differentiated legitimation strategies by adapting their discourse to their different stakeholders. Paradoxically, we find evidence of industry-wide isomorphism, where rather than developing idiosyncratic discourses, organizations adopt conventional discursive strategies.     

To outcomes and beyond: Discursively managing legitimacy struggles in outcome business models

Outcome business models (OBMs) guarantee and deliver economic and operational results for customers. The risk transfer from customer to provider enables the emergence of new value drivers, such as mutual learning. However, if the outcome-based service (OBS) customer learns the operational capabilities, based on which they are willing to rely on the OBS provider to achieve outcomes, how then does an OBS provider justify its role as a legitimate partner in the future? To answer this question, we conducted an in-depth single-case study and performed a critical discourse analysis with an OBS provider delivering outcomes. We identify causes for legitimacy struggles (lack of intentional and competence trust) in an OBM and subsequent discursive legitimation strategies used to defend legitimacy: 1) trustification, 2) rationalization, 3) authorization, and 4) normalization. For managers, we elaborate certain OBM problematics causing legitimacy struggles and offer discursive resources that can be mobilized to recreate legitimacy.     

Do global firms increase their environmental disclosure and performance? Symbolic versus effective operations and the moderating role of liability of origin. Legitimation implications

This paper analyzes the debate regarding the implications of international firms' strategies for their environmental approaches across multiple regions by distinguishing between symbolic and effective environmental operations. Furthermore, we extend previous literature by considering the relevant moderating role of a firm's liability of origin on these relationships. Using panel data of 292 firms in the period from 2011 to 2018 in the energy and utility sectors, our results show that a firm's progressive globalization increases its environmental disclosure but does not affect its environmental performance. Interestingly, our results demonstrate that a weak home country institutional context reinforces a global firm's interest in gaining legitimation through both its environmental disclosure and performance; however, a strong level of home country institutional development reduces its interest in environmental sources of legitimation. Our results contribute to previous literature on how global firms may gain environmental legitimacy using diverse strategies.     

Research priority setting in food and health domain: European stakeholder beliefs about legitimacy criteria and processes

Dietary factors are the most important risk factors affecting health and well-being of population in every Member State of the European Region. Finding sustainable solutions to the food and health challenges is one of the key issues that today’s society urgently needs to address. Research prioritisation thus has an essential role in directing public resources to addressing these challenges. However, the processes of prioritisation among the food and health funders are rarely subject to scrutiny and the calls for democratizing science continue, as a means of enhancing both input legitimacy (with its focus on the processes of decision-making) and output legitimacy (the utility and impact of such decisions). The current study examines what conceptualisations of legitimacy (input and output) are held by the European stakeholders of the food and health research and innovation (R&I) process such as business organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and public sector organisations. We analyse stakeholder views from a series of European Awareness Scenario Workshops across nine EU countries (N = 295). The content and thematic analysis of the outputs identified six criteria determining conceptualisations of legitimacy: Influence; Representation; Procedural issues; Epistemic focus; Strategic vision; and Impact. The statistical analysis of the coded data highlighted stakeholder differences with business sector organisations being significantly less concerned about influence and representation than either NGO or public sector organisations. The results indicate that input legitimacy is of major concern to civil society and public sector actors. They reflect the wider debate about the way in which food and health R&I should be funded and policy decisions conducted, suggesting a need for better delineation of stakeholder roles and power differentials in this process. The findings are discussed with reference to the current discussions about Responsible Research and Innovation.     

The Long and Winding Road: Building Legitimacy for Complex Social Innovation in Networks

Social innovations, which increasingly take place in interorganizational networks, occur in environments characterized by resource scarcity. To secure access to resources, social innovators need to establish legitimacy for their initiatives. Yet, empirical work investigating the process of establishing legitimacy for social innovation—also known as legitimation—is absent. This research aims to uncover how legitimacy is established when social innovations are developed, over time, through interorganizational networks. To investigate this process, the research adopts a longitudinal case study of a network of five market‐leading organizations in the home care sector. A process‐based analysis of evidence from 33 meeting observations, 45 in‐depth interviews, and 249 documents reveals three novel findings. (1) The attainment of overall legitimacy depends on the establishment, over time, of three types of legitimacy targeted at different audiences. These are framed as building blocks oriented toward achieving interorganizational, multilevel, and external legitimacy. (2) The process of establishing legitimacy, across the building blocks, is underpinned by two dominant combinations of patterns—denoted as courting and demonstrating commitment. (3) Variation in two underlying mechanisms—conflicting tensions and role promotion—drives the enactment of these patterns across the different building blocks. The study's novelty lies in the extrication of critical types of legitimacy and dominant patterns and mechanisms which underpin the process of establishing legitimacy. It contributes to social innovation and innovation legitimation literature by providing a deep‐grained understanding of the process to establish legitimacy within social innovations carried out through interorganizational networks.     

The legitimacy of strategic alliances: an institutional perspective

Drawing on an institutional perspective, this paper suggests that strategic alliances serve an important legitimating function for firms and that this role, mediated by alliance governance structure and partner selection preferences, has a significant influence on firm and alliance performance. A theoretical framework is proposed that identifies five types of legitimacy associated with strategic alliances and the specific conditions under which legitimation may be an important outcome of strategic alliances. Propositions are developed to explain when firms are most likely to enter into alliances for legitimacy purposes and how the legitimating role of strategic alliances contributes to firm and alliance performance. The paper concludes with a summary and implications of a legitimacy‐based view of alliances. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Moving toward the EU or the Middle East? An assessment of alternative Turkish foreign policies utilizing the GTAP framework

This paper assesses the new orientation in Turkish foreign policy towards the Arab world by analyzing the potential impact of Turkey’s membership in either the European Union (EU) or the Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA). We utilize the most recent version of the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) database, its global Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model, and the gravity border effect approach to estimate the ad-valorem tariff equivalents (AVEs) of non-tariff barriers (NTBs). In our overall analysis, we account for 24 various sectors. However, in our evaluation, we focus primarily on the food and agricultural sectors because this sector is characterized by high tariff and non-tariff protection. In the CGE simulation analysis, we consider the removal of tariffs and NTBs simultaneously. After projecting the GTAP framework to 2020, we conclude that Turkey would gain unambiguously from EU membership, whereas Turkey’s gains from GAFTA membership would be more limited. The paper also presents that the welfare gains from the removal of NTBs are of considerable importance and would generally be greater than the gains stemming from the elimination of import tariffs.     

Legitimacy building strategies in conditions of discretionary legal enforcement: A logic of social action approach

The present study explores strategies used to legitimize the transfer of organizational practices in a situation of institutional upheaval. We apply the logic of social action (Risse, 2000) to analyze the effectiveness of consequence-based action and communication-based action, in terms of higher coordination, lower conflict, and overall higher economic performance. Consequence-based legitimation is obtained by using a system of distributor incentives tied to performance of specific tasks, while communicative legitimation can be achieved by recommendations and warnings. Our setting is an export channel to European emerging economies. Our results indicate that in the absence of legitimacy, as manifested in discretionary legal enforcement, consequence-based legitimation is more effective than communicative legitimation in reducing conflict, increasing coordination, and ultimately in improving the performance of the export dyad.     

Product standards and developing country agricultural exports: The case of the European Union

This paper shows that voluntary product standards in EU food and agriculture markets can have significant trade effects. In particular for all countries and for goods that are raw or lightly processed, EU standards can often be trade-inhibiting. However, internationally harmonized EU standards—those that are equivalent to ISO norms—have much weaker trade effects, and in some cases are even trade-promoting. EU standards may have hurt developed countries more than developing countries, but this result is dependent on the sector. At a policy level, the results highlight the importance of dealing with the trade effects of voluntary standards in major markets, not just mandatory public standards.     

How Can New Players Establish Themselves in Highly Institutionalized Labour Markets? A Belgian Case Study in the Area of Project‐Based Work

How can new players seeking to serve nonstandard worker categories (such as project‐based workers) establish themselves into labour markets that are highly institutionalized? This paper explores the case of SMart, a Belgian community‐based labour market intermediary that successfully developed solutions to better represent the interests of project‐based workers and secure their discontinuous careers. Using an organizational legitimacy approach, we find that labour market entry and growth involve different types of boundary‐crossing when addressing the needs of workers that do not fit into established categories. However, to justify boundary‐crossing, the new player must complement its pragmatic work on delivering new services and tools with conceptual (cognitive) and structural (moral) legitimation work.     

The views of key stakeholders on an evolving food risk governance framework: Results from a Delphi study

Evidence of a decline in public trust associated with food risk governance over recent years has called into question the appropriateness of the current dominant risk analysis framework. Within the EU-funded SAFE FOODS project a novel risk analysis framework has been developed that attempts to address potential shortcomings by increasing stakeholder (including consumer) input, improving transparency, and formally incorporating benefit and non-health aspects into the analysis. To assess the viability of this novel framework, the views of food risk experts from the EU and beyond were sought using a distributed online questionnaire process called Delphi. In this paper the main results of this survey are described, revealing varying levels of support for the key innovations of the novel framework. Implications of our results for the new and old frameworks, for the future of risk analysis, and for the policy community more widely, are discussed.     

Securing and managing an organization's network legitimacy: The case of Motorola China

This study combines concepts from institutional and network theory to explain the currently observed behaviors of organizations in securing their network legitimacy. Organizations secure their network legitimacy by engaging in business, social, and political activities, with key network actors and institutions. This is achieved within an institutional framework of rules, regulations, and ideologies, including any consequential contextual changes. But while network legitimacy plays an important part in an organization's survival, limited attention has been paid to the development of a conceptual framework. In this article we provide one such framework and, specifically examine attributes of successful network legitimacy through an inductive, interpretative case analysis of Motorola China, in a transitional Chinese telecommunication sector.     

Research opportunities in the study of B2B new ventures: Perspectives from the entrepreneurship literature

The goal of this article is to identify research opportunities for scholars interested in B2B new ventures. The author focuses on opportunities that arise from a consideration of three important topics in the entrepreneurship literature: business model development, venture legitimacy, and top management teams. It is argued that significant opportunities exist for research that expands our understanding of (1) entrepreneurial paths from initial means to a fully specified business model, (2) the design of a portfolio of legitimation strategies, and (3) the impact of top management team characteristics and processes on venture characteristics, venture performance, and top management team outcomes.     

The impact of the European Novel Food Regulation on trade and food innovation based on traditional plant foods from developing countries

The stringent food safety assessment for novel foods required by the European Union’s Novel Food Regulation (NFR) places a high burden of proof on those bringing traditional food products to the EU market not consumed in the EU prior 1997. The regulation has emerged as a non-tariff trade barrier for heritage foods from developing countries that are viewed as “exotic” from the EU perspective. We show how the regulation has discouraged investment in supply chains and market development, and how this negatively affects income generation and rural poverty alleviation in developing countries. Focusing on plant-derived foods, this paper proposes to recognize traditional exotic foods in current EU law as a food category sui generis with food safety evidence requirements being proportionate to the risks they may pose. We argue that development activities promoting export food chains must increasingly accommodate legitimate food safety concerns about neglected food species in project design and seek to generate data to enhance regulatory acceptance in target markets.     

Potential economic impacts of zero thresholds for unapproved GMOs: The EU case

As the pipeline of new biotech crops has continued to expand, regulatory approvals of such crops across different countries have become less synchronized. As a result, some biotech crops can be cultivated in one or more countries but may not be approved for use in others. Under such circumstances, small amounts of unapproved biotech crops can be found in the food/feed supplies of some countries and under zero threshold policies they must be withdrawn and can lead to market disruptions. In this paper we examine the potential economic implications of regulatory asynchronicity and zero threshold policies for unapproved GMOs using the EU as a case study. To measure the potential economic impacts from possible trade disruptions between the EU and its major suppliers of soybeans, we develop a spatial equilibrium model and examine alternative scenarios where bilateral trade flows are set to zero. From our analysis we find that when asynchronous approvals become a systemic problem leading to trade disruptions with multiple trading partners the impacts can be severe. For instance, we find that if the EU were to stop imports from its three main suppliers the US, Brazil and Argentina, it would pay roughly 220% more for soybeans, 211% more for soybean meal and 202% more for soy oil.     

The political economy of food subsidy reform: the case of Egypt

This paper examines the political economy of food subsidy reform efforts in Egypt. Egypt provides a case of a country with a large food subsidy program that has been relatively effective as a social safety net, but a program that is also expensive and poorly targeted to the needy. Policy discussions about strategies to improve the system’s performance run into the extreme political sensitivity of the issue of food subsidies in Egypt. Food subsidies are perceived to be important in promoting political stability and providing some legitimacy to a political system where civil liberties are limited. Egypt therefore illustrates the dilemmas facing policymakers and others contemplating food subsidy reform in developing countries where there are concerns that reform may spark political unrest. This paper argues that even in cases where food subsidy reform is a highly politicized issue, there are still a number of pragmatic policy steps that can be taken that meet the twin goals of reforming the system in ways that better target the poor while functioning more efficiently.     

Monetäre Anreize zur Steuerung der Ladelast von Elektrofahrzeugen – eine modellgestützte Optimierung

Electric mobility is supposed to contribute to climate policy targets by reducing CO₂-emissions in the transportation sector. Increasing penetration rates of electric vehicles (EV) can lead to new challenges in the electricity sector, especially with regard to local distribution networks. Thus the management of charging loads is discussed as a key issue in energy economics. Due to their long parking times, high electricity and power demand, EV seem to be predestined for load management. Monetary incentives as dynamic pricing can be suitable for that: They reflect the current supply situation, pass the information to the consumers and can thus lead to a corresponding charging behaviour. In this article we analyse this interaction between dynamic pricing and charging loads. For this reason we have developed the optimization model DS-Opt+. It models a total number of 4,000 households in two residential areas of a major city with regard to its electricity demand, its mobility behaviour and its equipment of photovoltaic systems. Four different pricing models are tested for their effects on charging behaviour and thus the total load of the residential area. The results illustrate that only fairly high penetration rates of EV lead to remarkably higher electricity demand and require some load management. The tested dynamic pricing models are suitable for influencing charging loads; load-based tariffs are best in achieving a balanced load curve. In our analysis uncontrolled charging strategies are superior regarding a balanced load curve than controlled strategies by time-varying tariffs. Our results lead to several implications relevant for the energy industry and further research.     

Food industry structure in Norway and Denmark since the 1990s: Path dependency and institutional trajectories in Nordic food markets

Structural changes in Norwegian and Danish food industry since the 1990s is analysed as a path dependent response to the neo-liberal turn. Norway entered the 1990s as a protected market and Denmark as case of an export oriented industry. These developmental strategies are rooted in early 20th century industrialisation and influenced by institutional transformations in the 1990s, such as EU and WTO. Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are studied in the context of changing political environments. Explaining two different trajectories, we combine path dependency theories and a Polanyi inspired ‘varieties of capitalism’ framework with corporate strategy theories on food industry M&As. We identify two different types of path dependent development, a self-reinforcing in Denmark and a transformative ‘breaking point’ in Norway.     

The evolution of public industry R&D institute – the case of ITRI

Public industrial research institutes are important in regard to aiding industry development in many countries. Research institutes have to constantly change their strategies according to their industrial environments in order to remain influential. The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) has been recognised as a successful institute in facilitating industrial development. During its 40‐year development process, ITRI has gone through three stages of strategic repositioning and organisational reforms. The evolution of the organisational structure and the interactions with its social‐technological environment are both complex and dynamic. This study proposes a framework which integrates the role of the institutes with organisation structures and strategies to analyse the process of the evolution of ITRI. Based on the framework, this study uses system dynamics to identify the underlying structure driving the process of its evolution. The result shows that it is important to align the organisational structure with development strategies; in a long‐term perspective, the strategies for short‐term and long‐term goals can reinforce each other. The recent transition of ITRI suggests a new direction‐seeking role for public research institutes to play among the national innovation systems. This study also discusses the potential impacts of the system dynamics approach to R&D management.     

Productive efficiency and firm exit in the food sector

This work examines the effects of productive efficiency on the survival of firms in the Greek food sector. Technical and scale efficiency scores are computed within a data envelopment analysis (DEA) framework and are used as explanatory variables in a parametric (Weibull) survival model. High technical efficiency increases the median survival time and lowers the hazard rate of exit. As the scale efficiency of a firm operating either at increasing or decreasing returns to scale approaches one (1), its theoretically maximum value, the expected median survival time, is maximized for all types of exits. Developments in biotechnology, the evolution of alternative food supply networks, innovations in the food sector and competition policy are likely to affect technical and scale efficiency of food manufacturing firms. Results unraveling the effects of technical and scale efficiency on the survival of firms in the food sector are of particular relevance to food policy makers.