Enacting change through borrowed legitimacy: an institutional perspective

Аннотация

Purpose – This paper aims to offer borrowed legitimacy through coalitions as an explanation for how an organization might successfully deviate from social norms to enact change, yet still gain sufficient cognitive and sociopolitical legitimacy for survival. This paper explains that borrowing legitimacy through a coalition allows an illegitimate organization to impose an alternative future despite institutional pressures for its convergence to social norms, rules and expectations. Design/methodology/approach – To explore the ability of an organization that lacks legitimacy to borrow legitimacy through a coalition, the authors use a case study and content analysis of interviews, news articles and other publicly available secondary data to examine an environmentalist organization, Sea Shepherds, who openly seek legitimacy and resources, and are engaged in enacting change while using a unique or alternative form. Findings – The case study here shows how a coalition with another organization that already has legitimacy can help the reference organization gain legitimacy themselves by borrowing legitimacy initially. Specifically, because more constituents are aware of the organization with existing legitimacy, the coalition allows the reference organization to borrow that cognitive legitimacy and constituents become aware of the reference organization as well