Maintaining legitimacy: an institutional cooptative analysis of a green technology innovation scheme crisis

Abstract

ABSTRACT Most institutions adopt deliberate methods of intervention for managing their legitimacy, particularly under conditions of a crisis. Maintaining legitimacy is therefore significant in institutional research, and the question of how social actors defend and protect their institution in the face of legitimacy judgement attacks is empirically significant. This study explores a green technology innovation scheme that engulfed a whole governance system, leading to a financial crisis, deterioration in public confidence, and the collapse of a devolved government. It identifies three types of legitimacy attacks that evolve throughout the crisis, and cooptation strategies institutions can apply to shore up and maintain dimensions of their legitimacy. The institutional analysis of the scheme crisis identifies that legitimacy attacks occur when an institution: (i) morally falters; (ii) relationally disconnects; (iii) instrumentally disregards. The findings, moreover, uniquely identify three institutional cooptation strategies, which can halt and avert threats in the face of such legitimacy attacks. These cooptation strategies include: (i) warranting transparency; (ii) streamlining communality; (iii) accepting responsibility. This demonstrates the inhabited nature of institutions and how they can regain legitimacy in the face of disruptive attacks.