Faculty Publications

Three Elements Of Stakeholder Legitimacy

Document Type

Article

Keywords

Organizational legitimacy, Stakeholder attributes, Stakeholder behavior, Stakeholder claim, Stakeholder legitimacy, Stakeholder theory

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Journal of Business Ethics

Volume

105

Issue

2

First Page

257

Last Page

265

Abstract

This paper focuses attention on the stakeholder attribute of legitimacy. Drawing upon institutional and stakeholder theories, I develop a framework of stakeholder legitimacy based on its three aspects-legitimacy of the stakeholder as an entity, legitimacy of the stakeholder's claim, and legitimacy of the stakeholder's behavior. I assume that stakeholder legitimacy is socially constructed by management and that each of its three aspects exists in degree in the manager's perception. I discuss how these aspects interact and change over time, and propose an agenda for future research on stakeholder legitimacy. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Department

Department of Management

Original Publication Date

1-1-2012

DOI of published version

10.1007/s10551-011-0966-y

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