How nascent community enterprises build legitimacy in internal and external environments

Vestrum, Ingebjørg and Rasmussen, Einar and Carter, Sara (2017) How nascent community enterprises build legitimacy in internal and external environments. Regional Studies, 51 (11). pp. 1721-1734. ISSN 0034-3404 (https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2016.1220675)

[thumbnail of Vestrum-etal-RS2016-Nascent-community-enterprises-build-legitimacy]
Preview
 Text. Filename: Vestrum_etal_RS2016_Nascent_community_enterprises_build_legitimacy.pdf
Accepted Author Manuscript
Download (444kB)| Preview

Abstract

Community enterprises (CEs) have become a widely used mechanism in addressing problems associated with socio-economic decline in rural areas. Using a legitimacy perspective, we explore how emerging CEs are able to access resources needed to start and sustain their operations. Studying two music festivals that aim to improve the identity and economy of rural communities, we show that the legitimation process requires different legitimacy building strategies within different environments. Three key legitimation strategies emerge: conformance to the internal (rural community) environment; conformance to the external (cultural festival) environment; and changing the internal (rural community) environment. Legitimacy is built in an iterative process, where CEs leverage legitimacy developed in one environment to build legitimacy in a different stakeholder audience. Hence, new ventures can strategically benefit from differences in legitimacy judgments among different audiences.

  • Item type:Article
    ID code:57224
    Dates:
    Date
    Event
    21 September 2017
    Published
    2 August 2016
    Accepted
    Notes:This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Regional Studies, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00343404.2016.1220675.
    Subjects:Social Sciences > Commerce
    Department:Strathclyde Business School > Hunter Centre For Entrepreneurship
    Depositing user: Pure Administrator
    Date deposited:02 Aug 2016 14:36
    Last modified:08 Apr 2024 23:10
    Related URLs:
    URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/57224
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)