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Contested internal legitimacy: the emergence of organized academic entrepreneurship

Adi Sapir (Department of Leadership and Policy in Education, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel)

Journal of Management History

ISSN: 1751-1348

Article publication date: 21 June 2019

Issue publication date: 10 January 2020

291

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the emergence of organized academic entrepreneurship in the context of institutional complexity, in which multiple institutional logics co-exist. The paper is focused on the dynamics of internal legitimation of new research commercialization initiatives and the interrelations between internal and external legitimacy and their underlying institutional logics.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a historical case study of the founding of Yeda Research and Development Company at the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1959, the paper examines the rhetorical struggles between the proponents and opponents of the company. The analysis is based on archival data and focuses on the analysis of a meeting of the Institute’s Scientific Committee in which the new company was introduced and debated.

Findings

The findings show the strengths and limitations of rhetorical legitimation work in supporting the establishment of new organizational initiatives. Rhetorical strategies that bridge the different institutional logics in the field can enable the emergence of new enterprises. Yet, when organizational practices do not concur with the institutional logic on which internal legitimacy is based, new organizational initiatives become illegitimate and organizational actors withdraw their support.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to a deeper understanding of the under-researched process of constructing internal legitimacy for an organizational change, both in general and in the specific context of academic entrepreneurship. Further, this study contributes new insights to research on the historical process of the emergence of organized research commercialization in universities in the context of institutional complexity.

Keywords

Citation

Sapir, A. (2020), "Contested internal legitimacy: the emergence of organized academic entrepreneurship", Journal of Management History, Vol. 26 No. 1, pp. 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMH-11-2018-0063

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

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