Legitimating New Forms of Organizing and New International Activities in the Eyes of Multiple Stakeholders: An Ethnographic Study

The research on new venture legitimation strategies is emerging; although, it is yet to form a central line of enquiry in entrepreneurship research. To contribute to this development, this paper explores the process of legitimation in a non-for-profit venture (hereafter as NGO, non-governmental organization). The paper explores (1) how this NGO acquired cognitive legitimacy, defined as knowledge about the new form of organizing and new activity and what is needed to succeed in respective sector, and socio-political legitimacy, defined as the value placed on the new form of organizing and new activity by its multiple stakeholders; and (2) what legitimation strategies it developed and adopted to legitimate itself in the eyes of its multiple stakeholders.
Theoretically, the paper is grounded within legitimation theory. The empirical context is defined by a new, international NGO entering an established NGO sector located in an emerging economy. In this context, in addition to challenges pertained to unfamiliar institutional settings in an emerging economy - liability of foreignness, this NGO had to overcome another set of challenges related to its new activities - liability of newness - as at the time of entry there were no precedents for the kind of forms of organizing and activities this venture was aiming to introduce to the market.