Turning Antagonists into Supporters: Establishing Legitimacy in Hostile Environments

Abstract

This study gives insights into how new ventures can establish legitimacy in hostile environments, where a large number of audiences carry pre-existing negative views of an organization’s activities or agenda. Based on the case of how a new social venture in Egypt gathered support from stakeholders, who were highly skeptical and even suspicious of the organization from the onset, we identify a new model of legitimacy building that is particularly applicable to hostile environments: optimal deviance. We show how optimal deviance enables a new venture, whose agenda is perceived to be inherently incompatible with existing institutional norms, to establish its deviance in a way that appears as non-threatening and inoffensive to key audiences. Our study has implications for research on new venture legitimacy and social entrepreneurship.