External Legitimacy Research Articles

Adaptive co-management: How social networks, deliberation and learning affect legitimacy in carnivore management

Adaptive co-management (ACM) is a key concept in science and an increasingly adopted policy response in conservation, associated with a number of positive outcomes. However, the effects and mechanisms of co-management arrangements, including the conditions under which ACM gives rise to higher levels of internal and external legitimacy, are yet to be explored. This endeavor, in turn, requires theoretically driven models providing assumptions and outlining testable hypotheses. Considering the social challenges of ACM and using an institutional change within the Swedish carnivore management system aimed at achieving legitimacy through co-management as an illustrative example, this article develops a conceptual model that encompasses conditions and possible explanations to ACM outcomes. More specifically, drawing on lessons from social theory, we model the impact of three key factors—social networks, deliberation and learning—on the external and internal legitimacy resulting from ACM arrangements. Based on the model proposed, the popular assumptions of ACM outcomes can thus be empirically scrutinized and the conditions for increased legitimacy through ACM arrangements better comprehended.

The Institutionalization of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI)

A number of observers have expressed serious concerns that Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI), as it expands in the Sahel, may become strong enough to be a threat to Europe and carry on the global mission of Al-Qaeda as conceived by bin Laden. This fear seems unwarranted. Using institutional analysis to study the AQMI behavioral fluctuations over the last decade, this article argues that AQMI's need to find a compromise between external and internal legitimacy has constrained its behavior. The affiliation of the Algerian terrorists with Al-Qaeda was in many ways a marriage of convenience that created a number of internal contradictions. At the cognitive level, implicit Algerian nationalism to rid the country of its corrupt regime remains at odds with pan-Islamic views shared by Al-Qaeda's leadership. At the normative level, indiscriminate suicide bombing supported by Al-Qaeda is abhorrent to many Algerian terrorists, who construe their mandate in the spirit of the Algerian war of independence where it is their duty to protect civilians. These and other contradictions prevent AQMI from developing a coherent political agenda and thus it is less likely to engage in a long-term conflict against European societies.

Police Understanding of the Foundations of Their Legitimacy in the Eyes of the Public

The dialogic approach to legitimacy postulates that a complete picture of police legitimacy requires considering not only citizens’ views, but also police understanding of their legitimacy and the interaction between the two. This article addresses a particular aspect of police perceptions of their legitimacy in the eyes of the public: the foundations of their external legitimacy. The analysis reveals that, in contrast to the priorities of citizens as reflected in community surveys, Israeli commanding police officers associate their external legitimacy more with their accomplishments in fighting crime than with procedural justice. We consider the implications of these findings for Israeli policing, as well as in relation to the ‘legitimacy as a dialogue’ approach and legitimacy research more generally.

Legitimating the legitimate: A grounded theory study of legitimacy work among Ethics and Compliance Officers

Organizations have responded to ethical scandals in part by creating the Ethics and Compliance Officer (ECO) role to help insure employee ethical and legal behavior. Because ECO work is so fundamental to behavioral ethics in organizations and we know very little about it, we conducted a grounded theory study to learn more. We learned that, although most ECOs were hired to help their organizations respond to external legitimacy challenges, ECOs face major legitimacy challenges inside their organizations. Facilitating conditions may reduce these challenges and help ECOs reach internal legitimacy. But, we also found that ECOs engage in what we term legitimacy work that relies on a number of tactics to help them gain legitimacy in the eyes of their constituents. We tie our findings to the broader legitimacy literature and draw implications for the behavioral ethics literature.

On the legitimacy of the Constitutional Courts and institutionalization of the right to resistance, with reference to the legitimacy of church authorities

The concept of legitimacy has a dual meaning: it is both the form of supreme power of the state and the justification of that power. Max Weber distinguishes three types of legitimate authority: traditional authority, charismatic authority, and the rational-legal authority. The prevailing form of power in the modern world is the third type of legitimate authority, which is reflected in the concept of 'the legal state' or 'the rule of law rather than the rule of people'. In that regard, the rational-legal authority is based on Jean-Jacques Rousseau's idea on law as the expression of the 'general will'. This idea was introduced into the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789): 'Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a right to participate, personally or through his representatives, in its foundation. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or punishes...' Consequently, except for the entire body of citizens (referendum legislation) and their representatives (parliamentary legislation), all other state authorities emerge as the holders of the particular will. In this original article, the author lays down the theoretical standpoint that 'the general will' is in fact a totality of (normative) legal principles. Today, the institution of a constitutional court (or some other equivalent institution) is recognized in almost all legislations of the European-Continental legal tradition falling into the Roman-Germanic-Slavic legal family. There is no dispute on whether such an institution may examine the compliance of by-laws with the Constitution and the applicable law because, in that case, the holder of one particular will controls the holder of another particular will. However, it is disputable whether the constitutional court, as the holder of particular will (and the only administrative authority whose members are selected by the legislature), may invalidate the laws which it considers to be unconstitutional because, in that case, one particular will rises above the general will. According to Rousseau, this is despotism, which is indisputably a form of illegitimate power. Yet, law need not necessarily be the expression of the general will. Rousseau clearly distinguishes between man as an individual (who is a holder of the particular will and the citizen (who is a holder of the general will). Thus, we cannot rule out the possibility that these particular wills may exercise different forms of oppression over the general will, under the shroud of law. Rousseau does not explicitly propose the solution for such a state of affairs but merely points out that the holders of the particular will 'shall be forced to be free'. This raises the question of the right to resist oppression. This right was a much debated issue at the turn of the Middle Ages and the New Age. The leading proponents of political philosophy, Monarchomachs and John Locke consider that this right does not belong either to an individual or to the masses of common people but to the nations organized in corporations. The ultimate message in this paper is the need for the revival of corporations as the holders of the right to resist oppression, in the best tradition of Roman tribunes and Spartan ephors. The addendum deals with the 'external legitimacy' of church authorities which entails their recognition by the state as an essential presumption for the existence of Church Law; in that context, the author elaborates on different types of relations between the state and the Church.

The Impact of the Organizing Vision on Mobile BI Adoption

Mobile Business Intelligence (m-BI) enhances the capabilities of organizations to take decisions 'on-the-move'. M-BI emerged as an extension of BI and many companies have or are considering implementing it. Being an innovation, m-BI reflects an organizing vision, created by a broad community, which is prominent during the comprehension process of this innovation. Little is known how the organizing vision affects the decision to adopt a certain innovation, and moreover these studies are completely lacking within the m-BI area. A qualitative approach has been embraced and interviews with different organizations that have already decided to adopt m-BI have been conducted. This study revealed that industrial research reports, vendors marketing campaigns and success stories produced by the collaboration among vendors, analysts, journalist and early adopters have a strong influence on the early phases of the organizational decision-making process to adopt m-BI. Increasing internal and external legitimacy, reducing the risk to be left behind, gaining competitive advantage, following the footsteps of high-performing companies, increasing their prestige and reputation, are the main reasons for why organizations may start the decision-making process to adopt m-BI; all this under the umbrella of the organizing vision. (Less)

"Corruption, Multinational Enterprise Strategy and Foreign Subsidiary Survival"

This study focuses on the multinational enterprise’s (MNE) pursuit of external legitimacy and the survival implications associated with various strategic initiatives that are implemented at the subsidiary level to secure legitimacy in increasingly corrupt host market environments. In this context, the strategic insights proffered by resource dependence theory (RDT) and institutional theory (IT) are characterized by distinct spatial orientations. RDT predicts that subsidiaries will implement proximal localization strategies in which local (host country) partners and employees are hypothesized to be best-suited to efforts to enhance the subsidiary’s legitimacy and reduce its likelihood of exit from the host country market. Conversely, IT suggests that distal localization strategies in which subsidiaries that prefer to engage home country partners and employees in the subsidiary investment are better-suited to reducing the likelihood of subsidiary exit from increasingly corrupt host country market environments. We develop a set of competing hypotheses based on RDT and IT to examine the relationship between host market corruption levels, MNE strategy and the likelihood of exit. The hypotheses were tested against a large sample of subsidiaries established between 1995 and 2006 in 44 host countries. Our results reveal the enhanced efficacy of distal localization strategies. Subsidiaries that prefer transnational joint venture partnership arrangements (constituted by home country partners only), employ a greater proportion of expatriates and engage fewer host country partners in subsidiary investments enjoy a diminished likelihood of exit under conditions of heightened corruption.

Convincing State-Builders? Disaggregating Internal Legitimacy in Abkhazia

De facto states, functional on the ground but unrecognized by most states, have long been black boxes for systematic empirical research. This study investigates de facto states’ internal legitimacy—people's confidence in the entity itself, the regime, and institutions. While internal legitimacy is important for any state, it is particularly important for de facto states, whose lack of external legitimacy has made internal legitimacy integral to their quest for recognition. We propose that the internal legitimacy of de facto states depends on how convincing they are to their “citizens” as state-builders. Using original data from a 2010 survey in Abkhazia, we examine this argument based on respondent perceptions of security, welfare, and democracy. Our findings suggest that internal legitimacy is shaped by the key Weberian state-building function of monopoly of the legitimate use of force, as well as these entities’ ability to fulfill other aspects of the social contract.

Aiding Revolution? Wikileaks, communication and the ‘Arab Spring’ in Egypt

This article explores the role of external actors in facilitating the uprisings in Egypt that have become known as the Arab Spring. It analyses several of the diplomatic cables released by the Wikileaks organisation that possess an Egypt focus. The article suggests that while the cables did not make surprising revelations to Egyptians, the release of this information offered a source of external legitimacy for the protesters by detailing a history of oppression and human rights abuses; conversely, the cables delegitimised the Mubarak regime. The data were then spread via different channels of communication to aid the protest movements both internally and externally. The article concludes by suggesting that while this information was incredibly important, as were the channels of communication used to facilitate events and spread the information, one must be careful not to diminish the importance of agency.

Founder-CEO status and firm performance: an exploratory study of alternative perspectives

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the relationship between founder-chief executive officers (CEOs) and firm performance. Specifically, the paper explores two opposing arguments on the performance implications of founder-CEO leadership. The first theoretical perspective argues that founder-CEOs positively contribute to firm performance since they bring passion, vision, and external legitimacy to the organization. The contrary resource-based perspective, argues that while founder-CEOs help in the early years of the firm, they become less effective as the firm evolves into a complex bureaucracy since they lack the necessary managerial skills.

Why I act differently: studying patterns of legitimation among CIOs through motive talk

PurposeIT governance has become the recognized norm system for chief information officers. The purpose of this paper is to understand how CIOs relate to these norms, by studying how they legitimate incompliance with the norms.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses an interpretive, qualitative, structured interview study with 18 CIOs in large Swedish organizations regarded as having excellent IT governance practice, using motive talk as analytical lens to identify the informants’ relationship to norms.FindingsThe study identifies norm‐specific patterns for how CIOs legitimate incompliance with IT governance, finding that CIOs use a combination of excuse and justifications as strategies of legitimation. The study also finds that CIOs display a tendency of not contesting IT governance‐related norms unless these are in conflict with neighboring professional jurisdictions. This is regarded as an identification of the “margins” of IT governance.Research limitations/implicationsThe study illustrates how the theory of motive talk is a viable road ahead for future studies of IT professionals. The generalizability of the identified patterns of legitimation is limited by the selection of large organizations with solely male CIOs, as well as the selection of solely organizations that have succeeded in establishing external legitimacy concerning IT governance and the organizations being Swedish.Practical implicationsCIOs aspiring to increase their legitimacy should avoid direct conflicts with neighboring professions. In addition to this, they should also aspire to be clear in a separation of motive talk and actual practice, since full norm compliance may be detrimental to their factual operations.Originality/valueThe originality of this paper lies in the methodological approach of combining motive talk and speech acts to investigate CIO legitimation practices.

Entrepreneur's Business Model: Calculation and Narrative as Means of Leveraging Uncertainty

Business models are often challenged by lack of external and internal legitimacy at the initial stages of their creation. In this proposal, I focus on entrepreneurial ventures due to their transformative dynamic capabilities. I conceptualize business models as a combination of calculation and narrative. Both calculative and narrative aspects are essential for entrepreneurs aiming to gain legitimacy for their ventures and cope with uncertainty about venture outcomes. I develop propositions linking the role of business model calculative and narrative forms and exploration/exploitation type of entrepreneurial learning, as well as level of uncertainty within the activity system. Propositions are supported with exemplary evidence and call for further empirical investigation.

A Process Model of Internal and External Legitimacy

We report the results of a longitudinal case study depicting the relationship between internal and external legitimacy at Orion, an emergent creative professional firm. We address the following questions: How do different types of legitimacy emerge, and how do they interact to shape organizational evolution? Introducing a staged process model, we demonstrate that organizational legitimacy is a product of action, which is continually reproduced and reconstructed by members of an organization in concert with external legitimation activities. Internal and external legitimacy evolve through a process of emergence, validation, diffusion and consensus, sometimes recursively repeating the cycle when imbalances result in conflict and friction.

The necessary connection between internal and external state legitimacy: concerns regarding intervention

It has been traditional in political philosophy to take internal and external state legitimacy as resting on distinct criteria. However, this is a view that is currently being challenged. Assuming that internal and external legitimacy rely on the same criterion, a possible worry that arises is that an unacceptable amount of intervention will necessarily become justifiable. I argue that such worries are not significant and that they do not rule out this alternative to the traditional view.

"Managerial Migration, Institutional Rewards, Inter-firm Legitimacy Transfer"

The study links the SME’s tactics for external legitimacy acquisition through hiring senior managers from incumbent leaders in exchange for institutional rewards. Two empirical questions guide this study. (1) Does the SME (small and medium enterprise) attract senior managers from legitimate organizations? (2) Does the recruitment of senior managers from legitimate organizations increases the duration of the SME’s survival? We answer these questions by using 1485 observations in 9 years. The result reveals that SMEs prefer to recruit managers from legitimate industrial leaders. They focus on organization-specific legitimacy more than managerial human capital or person-specific legitimacy. In exchange, the SME rewards the manager with institutional position (higher ranks). It implies that SMEs exchange one kind of institutional resources (carrier positions) with the other kind (organizational legitimacy). We also find that SMEs are able to expand their lifespan. The paper discusses implications for research and practice.

Elections, Independence, Democracy: The 2012 Timorese Electoral Cycle in Context

Timor-Leste rose to independence following a path that included three electoral processes organized under the auspices of the UN and has thus got elections imprinted on its own genetic code. After independence, the responsibility for electoral processes – a key aspect of the sovereignty of the Timorese people – was passed to the nation's authorities, who organized two full rounds of presidential and legislative elections in 2007 and 2012 with the assistance of the international community. This effort constitutes a major element in the process of granting the new regime internal and external legitimacy and at the same time is a response both to citizens’ perception of the political game in order to secure their empowerment and to the call for transparent, internationally acknowledged procedures. Initially, this essay analyses the legal and administrative framework for Timorese elections, bearing these competing requirements in mind. It then focuses on the 2012 elections: first, on the two rounds of presidential elections, including the intricate relationship between presidential candidacies and political parties, and then on the results of the legislative poll, which had a major impact on the political landscape. The final section deals with the challenges that lie ahead for the coming political cycle (2012–2017).

Examining the Development of Internal and External Legitimacy in an Entrepreneurial

We study the entire seven year history of Orion, from its formation as a graphic art startup through endorsement and constitution as an Internet technology and content firm, and address the followi...

Alliance Learning Decisions and Firm Performance:The Business Relatedness-Market Legitimacy Effect

Firms seeking to sustain competitive advantage in the marketplace through synergy in alliance formations are influenced by both their inter-organizational resource profiles and legitimacy requirements in selecting appropriate learning behavior. Linking the exploration-exploitation framework to the standard industrial classification (SIC) measures of business relatedness and market legitimating function, this study provides a multi-theoretical perspective bridging organization learning theory with the resource based view of the firm and institutional theory. These antecedents and their interactions not only determine learning behavior choices within alliances but may also have performance implications. The integrative framework developed in this study suggests that the internal considerations of business similarity and external market legitimacy factors are consequential for understanding a firm’s alliance learning behaviors and their effect on firm performance. Moreover, this study also suggests but finds...

Prosocial Values and Performance Management Theory: Linking Perceived Social Impact and Performance Information Use

Performance management techniques are presented as control mechanisms to save money and hold bureaucrats accountable, consistent with negative agency theory assumptions of bureaucrats. We propose an alternative theory of performance management that rests on prosocial values. This theory argues that public servants who see the social impact of their work are more likely to use performance metrics. We operationalize performance information use in terms of purposeful use for internal organizational means, and political use for external legitimation. Those who perceive that their work has a strong social impact are likely to pursue both types of uses, to improve both the effectiveness of their services, and to maintain resources. The data come from a cross‐sectional survey of U.S. public and nonprofit employees.

Post-Soviet de facto states in search of internal and external legitimacy. Introduction.

The four state-like entities on the territory of the former Soviet Union that emerged about twenty years ago have successfully defended their precarious independence until today. However, we still know very little about the internal political developments in these de facto states, because so far most research has focused on the regional and international dimensions of the now “frozen” secessionist conflicts which brought them into being. The authors of this issue argue that it is high time to have a closer look at the developments inside these de facto states for several reasons. First, in order to understand whether there is mutual dependence between internal political structures and processes and the chances of international recognition. Second, the post-Soviet de facto states are model cases for internal transformation or even democratization efforts as a strategy of internal and/or external legitimacy building. Finally, the issue proves that the reluctance of academia to analyze the political systems of these entities for fear of legitimizing regimes that do not deserve it is not reasonable: the post-Soviet de facto states are fully grown states for all but international recognition – they are not supposed to disappear because we refuse to admit this fact.