Linking Legitimacy and Efficiency: Insights From a Case of Educational Entrepreneurship

• In Event: 35.079 - Sheraton Roundtable Session Five - Grand Centre
  In Roundtable Session: 35.079-4 - Organizational Theory at the Crossroads

Abstract

While classic organizational theory looks at an organization’s efficiency as the process of reaching its output goals in the most well-organized way, New Institutional Theory suggests that in some cases an organization’s primary goal is to gain legitimacy from its organizational field. This study offers a refined insight into the relationship between organizational efficiency and the concept of legitimacy. Through the case of an entrepreneurial school that gained legitimacy from some of the actors in the field but not from other relevant ones, and therefore did not survive, we describe the exceptional organizational mission of being efficient in raising legitimacy. We conclude that the concept of legitimacy is not dichotomous, but a continuum running from legitimacy to de-legitimacy.

Authors

• Hilla Tal, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

• Dorit Tubin, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev