The implications of organizational legitimacy for corporate social performance and disclosure

Abstract

Organizational legitimacy is a concept which can be used to gain insight into the motivation a corporation has for providing corporate social disclosure on a voluntary basis and into the nature of the use of such disclosure by the public. To facilitate the gaining on such insight this paper introduces the concept of organizational legitimacy and contrasts it with two often suggested alternatives - the law and economic exchange - and shows it to be distinct from the two. Having shown the condition of legitimacy to be distinct, the paper then investigates the process which underlies the condition - the process of legitimation. Four legitimation strategies are introduced and the effect the legitimation strategies may have on the nature and quality of the resulting corporate social disclosure is discussed in terms of the usefulness of the disclosure to relevant publics.