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Legitimation Work Within a Cross-Sector Social Partnership

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  • Dominik Rueede
  • Karin Kreutzer

Abstract

This study illuminates how a cross-sector social partnership legitimizes itself toward multiple internal and external stakeholders. Within a single-case study design, we collected retrospective and real time data on the partnership between Deutsche Post DHL and The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Within this partnership, Deutsche Post DHL provides corporate volunteers that support disaster response after natural disasters on a pro bono basis. The main objects that needed legitimacy as well as the audiences from which legitimacy was mainly sought changed over time. In addition, we identified legitimation work as occurring across objects, audiences, and time. Thus, we introduce legitimation work as the purposeful effort of the legitimacy seeker to avoid certain issues while ensuring other issues that are of importance to the conferrer of legitimacy. These findings contribute to micro-level considerations within institutional theory which view legitimacy as socially constructed between legitimacy seeker and conferrer. Hence, we add another perspective on legitimation to the previously existing conceptualizations of legitimacy as a deterministic consequence of institutionalization. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Dominik Rueede & Karin Kreutzer, 2015. "Legitimation Work Within a Cross-Sector Social Partnership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 128(1), pages 39-58, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:128:y:2015:i:1:p:39-58
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-014-2072-4
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    2. Anne M. Quarshie & Rudolf Leuschner, 2018. "Cross-Sector Social Interactions and Systemic Change in Disaster Response: A Qualitative Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(2), pages 357-384, June.
    3. Toohey, Kristine & Beaton, Anthony, 2017. "International cross-sector social partnerships between sport and governments: The World Anti-Doping Agency," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 483-496.
    4. Juelin Yin & Dima Jamali, 2021. "Collide or Collaborate: The Interplay of Competing Logics and Institutional Work in Cross-Sector Social Partnerships," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 169(4), pages 673-694, April.
    5. Andreas Hesse & Karin Kreutzer & Marjo-Riitta Diehl, 2019. "Dynamics of Institutional Logics in a Cross-Sector Social Partnership: The Case of Refugee Integration in Germany," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 679-704, October.
    6. Peter Norberg, 2018. "Bankers Bashing Back: Amoral CSR Justifications," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 147(2), pages 401-418, January.
    7. Christiana Weber & Helen Haugh & Markus Göbel & Hannes Leonardy, 2022. "Pathways to Lasting Cross-Sector Social Collaboration: A Configurational Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(3), pages 613-639, May.
    8. Chen, Xin & He, Yuanqiong & Wang, Lihua & Xiong, Jie & Joy Jiang, Ruihua, 2022. "The legitimization process of social enterprises across development stages: Two case studies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 203-215.
    9. Christiana Weber & Kathrin Weidner & Arne Kroeger & James Wallace, 2017. "Social Value Creation in Inter-Organizational Collaborations in the Not-for-Profit Sector – Give and Take from a Dyadic Perspective," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(6), pages 929-956, September.
    10. Lea Stadtler & Luk N. Wassenhove, 2023. "Between Intensity and Diversity: Leveraging the Role of Place in Cross-Sector Partnerships," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 184(4), pages 773-791, May.
    11. Kreutzer, Karin & Rueede, Dominik, 2019. "Organizational identity consistency in a discontinuous corporate volunteering program," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 455-467.
    12. Hao Ren & Rongrong Wang & Suopeng Zhang & An Zhang, 2017. "How Do Internet Enterprises Obtain Sustainable Development of Organizational Ecology? A Case Study of LeEco Using Institutional Logic Theory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-21, August.
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