Abstract
In this paper, we explore how social approval assets are used to legitimate and categorize a new national university. We argue that during the course of the process, justification is established through value-creating promises that the new organization is claimed to fulfill. Based on a longitudinal empirical study regarding the birth of Aalto University in Finland, the results suggest that the meaning of the new university was constructed by using two distinct discourses, higher education and the market economy. These discourses not only sought to justify the new university as categorically different from existing Finnish universities but also mobilized social approval assets as value-creating promises that were claimed to materialize for the benefit of supporters. We discuss the study’s contributions to the nascent literature on social judgment assets from discursive and critical perspectives and the strategic categorization process for a new organization.
Highlights
Status, legitimacy and reputation are valuable assets that organisations can use to attract or maintain social approval
We explore the recent changes in the higher education sector and exemplify why legitimacy, status and reputation have become so vital in the field
The discourse depicted a situation in which Finnish higher education was lagging behind on a global level, and that the reasons for this lay in operational preconditions such as insufficient funding and tight government control, which restricted organisational autonomy in financial, management and personnel issues
Summary
Legitimacy and reputation are valuable assets that organisations can use to attract or maintain social approval. The construction of reputation and status, in particular, is often perceived as a positive phenomenon, all social judgement processes seek to emphasise certain qualities and attributes and marginalise others How these social approval assets and valuecreating promises discursively emphasise or marginalise contextual factors related to space, time, practice, and change is important (Leitch and Palmer, 2010). Both discourses provided a new Mode 2 basis for universities, but from different angles. To secure and advance the wellbeing of Finnish business life and society To advance the national innovation policy A triple helix model university Focus on areas that are important to Finland and the Finnish economy, increasing the expected value of excellence, namely the reputation of Finland, Finnish businesses, and the New University itself Research, teaching, and economic development
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