Le strategie di legittimazione in contesti complessi: il caso delle aziende operanti su terreni confiscati alla criminalità organizzata

Abstract

The legitimacy is crucial for the survival and the development of the firms and the process to achieve the legitimacy is different for every environment and type of organization. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the strategies of legitimacy under specific environmental and organizational conditions. In particular, the paper analyses the legitimacy of ethical oriented and innovator firms in a complex environment.

In addressing the purpose of the paper, after the literature review and the description of the theoretical framework, the case of the “Placido Rizzotto” cooperative is analysed. This cooperative works in a complex environment namely grounds seized from the mafia. The case study highlights that for an ethical oriented firm the process to achieve the morale legitimacy is quite rigid due to the impossibility to adopt an isomorphic adaptation strategy. In addition, in the achievement of the legitimacy the case shows that a fundamental role is played by networking mechanisms. Finally, we theorise a scheme in three steps to represent the process of legitimacy in this kind of environment and organization: a first step of start-up in which the firm enhances the legitimacy towards only favourable stakeholders; a second step of reinforcement in which the purpose is to achieve legitimacy also toward skeptical stakeholders; a third step of development  in which is to maintain the legitimacy toward all category of stakeholders.