You Scratch My Back and I Scratch Yours

Investigating Inter-Partner Legitimacy in Relationships Between Social Enterprises and Their Key Partners

authored by: Kathrin Weidner, Christiana Weber, Markus Göbel
Abstract: Social enterprises, like almost all organizations, continuously strive for external legitimacy. To be perceived as externally legitimated by society, social enterprises often engage in strategic partnerships. However, scholars have only recently turned their attention to the legitimating function of such partnerships. The purpose of this article is to address the hitherto neglected construct of inter-partner legitimacy. Drawing on institutional theory, we hypothesize that such inter-partner legitimacy affects the resource transfer among partners, which will, in turn, be recognized by society and will subsequently affect each partner’s external legitimacy. Dyadic data of 121 strategic partnerships between social enterprises and their key partners confirm our hypotheses. We add to institutional theory by integrating the often ignored dimension of inter-partner legitimacy into our analysis and demonstrate its relevance to each partner’s external legitimacy and to resource transfer. Further contributions to the literature on institutional theory, legitimacy, social entrepreneurship, and inter-organizational relationships are identified.
Organisation(s): Institute of Strategic Management and Organisation
External Organisation(s): Helmut Schmidt University
Type: Article
Journal: Business and society
Volume: 58
Pages: 493-532
No. of pages: 40
ISSN: 0007-6503
Publication date: 03.11.2016
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Business, Management and Accounting (miscellaneous), Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1177/0007650316675617 (Access: Closed)