How to fit in and stand out: Legitimacy building mechanisms in new ventures

1 page Publication by Mahmood M. Aslam & Ricarda B. Bouncken in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
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Abstract in English:

Today, entrepreneurs and new ventures increasingly are located in shared workspaces, e.g. of incubators, accelerators, and coworking-spaces. In these spaces, entrepreneurs have to comply with normative legitimacy, but also need to reveal their distinctiveness and conformity related to cognitive legitimacy. We conducted an inductive research of providers and users of different coworking-spaces. We find that entrepreneurs in CWS can access advantages for legitimacy building but face challenges of conformity and distinctiveness. Findings suggest that coworking-spaces have instrumental and symbolic functions, which enable entrepreneurs to tackle the challenges of conformity and creativity (distinctiveness) through associative and identity mechanisms. Entrepreneurs can build legitimacy of their new venture through developing personal and business ties with other actors in coworking-spaces and can also employ symbolic actions and impression management strategies.

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Open Access? No

Journal Academy of Management Annual Meeting
Publication Year 2019
Volume 2019(1)

DOI 10.5465/AMBPP.2019.19262

English | Discipline Management