Strategies of Legitimacy through Social Media: The Networked Strategy

TY - JOUR

T1 - Strategies of Legitimacy through Social Media

T2 - The Networked Strategy

AU - Castello, Itziar

AU - Etter, Michael

AU - Nielsen, Finn Årup

PY - 2016/4/6

Y1 - 2016/4/6

N2 - How can corporations develop legitimacy when coping with stakeholders who have multiple, often conflicting sustainable development (SD) agendas? We address this question by conducting an in-depth longitudinal case study of a corporation’s stakeholder engagement in social media and propose the concept of a networked legitimacy strategy. With this strategy, legitimacy is gained through participation in non-hierarchical open platforms and the co-construction of agendas. We explore the organizational transition needed to yield this new legitimacy approach. We argue that, in this context, legitimacy gains may increase when firms are able to relax their internal locus of control and relate non-hierarchically with their publics. We contribute to the extant literature on political corporate social responsibility and legitimacy by providing an understanding of a new context for engagement that reconfigures cultural, network, and power relations between the firm and their stakeholders in ways that challenge previous forms of legitimation.

AB - How can corporations develop legitimacy when coping with stakeholders who have multiple, often conflicting sustainable development (SD) agendas? We address this question by conducting an in-depth longitudinal case study of a corporation’s stakeholder engagement in social media and propose the concept of a networked legitimacy strategy. With this strategy, legitimacy is gained through participation in non-hierarchical open platforms and the co-construction of agendas. We explore the organizational transition needed to yield this new legitimacy approach. We argue that, in this context, legitimacy gains may increase when firms are able to relax their internal locus of control and relate non-hierarchically with their publics. We contribute to the extant literature on political corporate social responsibility and legitimacy by providing an understanding of a new context for engagement that reconfigures cultural, network, and power relations between the firm and their stakeholders in ways that challenge previous forms of legitimation.

U2 - 10.1111/joms.12145

DO - 10.1111/joms.12145

M3 - Article

SN - 0022-2380

VL - 53

SP - 402

EP - 432

JO - Journal of Management Studies

JF - Journal of Management Studies

IS - 3

ER -