ABSTRACT
Legitimacy is a concept that is central to the evolution of social systems, including organizations. Most insight on the subject has been developed by institutional theorists. They have argued that legitimacy building is the driving force behind decisions regarding organizational strategies and structures (DiMaggio and Powell 1983; Meyer and Rowan 1977; Tolbert and Zucker 1996; Zucker 1987) and that societal acceptance of the organization, and its subsequent survival, is dependent on attaining the support of relevant elements in its environment.
