Fisher, Kuratko, Bloodgood & Hornsby - Legitimate to whom?
Fisher, G., Kuratko, D.F., Bloodgood, J.M. & Hornsby, J.S. (2017) Legitimate to whom? The challenge of audience diversity and new venture legitimacy. Journal of Business Venturing, 32 (1): 52-71.
The authors examine how entrepreneurs manage new venture legitimacy judgments across diverse audiences, so as to appear legitimate to the different audience groups that provide much needed financial resources for venture survival and growth. To do so, they first identify and describe the different mechanisms by which entrepreneurs can establish new venture legitimacy across diverse audiences. Then, they account for the institutional logics that characterize different new venture audience groups, and use this as a basis for uncovering how and why the legitimacy criteria for a new technology venture may vary depending on the audience. After that, they consider how the leaders of entrepreneurial ventures may use framing as a means to manage legitimacy judgments across various audiences, and thereby improve their chances of accessing critical financial resources for venture survival and growth.
Fisher, Kuratko, Bloodgood & Hornsby “Legitimate to whom? The challenge of audience diversity and new venture legitimacy”