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Institutionalizing Women’s Enterprise Policy: A Legitimacy-Based Perspective

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  • Norin Arshed
  • Dominic Chalmers
  • Russell Matthews

Abstract

Despite efforts to increase the quantity and quality of women-owned businesses, enterprise policy has enjoyed only modest success. This article explores the role of legitimacy in these outcomes by examining how and when individual stakeholders evaluate and then influence the legitimacy of women’s enterprise policy. We draw on 45 interviews with actors in the UK enterprise policy ecosystem and an ethnographic study of the policy process. We present a multilevel model of two opposing legitimacy processes: a legitimacy repair loop and a delegitimizing loop. In doing so, we provide a novel perspective on policy institutionalizing.

Suggested Citation

  • Norin Arshed & Dominic Chalmers & Russell Matthews, 2019. "Institutionalizing Women’s Enterprise Policy: A Legitimacy-Based Perspective," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(3), pages 553-581, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:entthe:v:43:y:2019:i:3:p:553-581
    DOI: 10.1177/1042258718803341
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    Cited by:

    1. Norin Arshed & Graeme Martin & Stephen Knox, 2023. "Ties That Bind or Blind? The Role of Identity and Place in Understanding Women Entrepreneurs’ Support Needs," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(6), pages 2205-2232, November.
    2. Shu Meng & Xin Gao & Lianfeng Duan, 2022. "Facing the COVID-19 Pandemic and Developing a Sustainable Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: The Theory and Practice of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Policies in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-20, July.

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