3rd International Workshop on Organizational Legitimacy
The State of the Art in Legitimacy Research: Theory and Application
Idea Development Workshop & Expert Panel
To be held in person
Emlyon Business School
15-16 May, 2025
What are the Key Dates?
1
3 February 2025
Submission of an extended abstract of a research project (1,000 words)
2
10 March 2025
Notification of acceptance
3
14 April 2025
Submission of a final paper with research in progress (2,000-8,000 words)
4
15-16 May 2025
Organizational Legitimacy Workshop
Fast Facts about the Workshop
Who is This Workshop For?
The purpose of the 3rd annual Organizational Legitimacy Workshop (OLW) – 2025 is to support the research idea development for advancing the multilevel research on legitimacy in management and organization theory (https://legitimacy-research.org/). Moreover, this workshop aims to hold an expert panel, offer a platform for academic networking, and foster a cross-disciplinary research community keen on studying legitimacy. To achieve its goals, this workshop invites submission of original research papers and experimental study designs from scholars at various stages of their career and especially from early career scholars.
How is This Workshop Structured?
The structure of this workshop is set up to support the authors of the submissions that have been accepted by the organizing committee with the research idea development. This workshop will host (1) Keynote presentations on organizational legitimacy during the expert panel. It will also include (2) Developmental Roundtable Discussions with experts in small groups. This workshop will also offer (3) Networking and social activities.
How Can I Submit a Paper?
To support the development of research ideas, we welcome submissions presenting research projects. These projects may take the form of research papers in progress, experimental study design papers, and research proposals. Extended abstracts of 1,000 words should be submitted by 3 February 2025 (the link: https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=olw2024). Participants will be selected on a competitive basis, based on the research projects presented in the extended abstracts. The selected participants will not be requested to submit the full research papers at any stage of the workshop.
What Should I Do if My Paper is Accepted?
The notification of acceptance will be sent to the corresponding authors by the Organizing Committee by the 10 March 2025. The authors will submit the final paper of 2,000-5,000 words for research proposals and 5,000-8,000 words for more advanced projects by 14 April 2025. These final papers building on accepted abstracts will include work in progress and open discussion questions about the positioning, framing, and further advancement of the research idea.
Idea Development Workshop – Program
As a cross-disciplinary, multi-level construct, the topic of organizational legitimacy attracts scholars with wide-ranging interests spanning various fields within management research including organization studies, strategy, and entrepreneurship. To further foster a vibrant cross-disciplinary research community dedicated to exploring organizational legitimacy, we are organizing a 1.5-day idea development workshop at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, designed to offer an immersive and distinctive learning experience.
Organizers
- TBC
Purpose and Agenda
The workshop will comprise three elements:
- (Virtual) Keynote Presentations from experts on organizational legitimacy, including presentations focused on relevant theoretical developments, methodological advancements, and publishing considerations.
- Developmental Roundtable Discussions: participants will be grouped in roundtables, based on the final number of participants. Ideally, each roundtable will have four to six participants and will be facilitated by one senior scholar. Participation in the roundtable will serve as a platform for participants to showcase their research and receive constructive input from both their peers and the senior scholars. This will be an excellent opportunity for junior faculty members to refine their research projects and gain valuable insights from leaders in the field. We are planning on having both theory-focused as well as method-focused roundtables.
- Networking and Social Activities that will allow participants to connect in a more informal setting and foster community-building across management sub-fields. This also includes networking opportunities with editors from top-tier journals who can provide insights into the publication process.
By bringing together both junior and senior scholars, we aim to create a fertile ground for idea exchange, constructive feedback sessions, and valuable networking opportunities. Applications from junior scholars such as PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, and tenure-track/assistant professors from diverse international backgrounds are especially encouraged.
How to apply
Step 1
Create an account on EasyChair at:
Step 2
Log in to your account, then find the webpage of the workshop and read the full call for applications by clicking on this link:
Step 3
Submit an extended abstract of about 1,000 words (excluding references, tables, and figures) by 3 February 2025. We welcome submissions of both empirical and theoretical papers, as well as study designs.
About the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam:
The ambition of the Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam is to contribute to a better world through outstanding education and ground-breaking research. The VU Amsterdam strives to be a university where personal development and commitment to society play a leading role. A university where people from different disciplines and backgrounds collaborate to achieve innovations and to generate new knowledge. The VU Amsterdam is home to more than 30,000 students and employs over 5,500 individuals. The VU Amsterdam campus is easily accessible and located in the heart of Amsterdam’s Zuidas district, a truly inspiring environment for teaching and research. The VU Amsterdam is an inclusive university community. Diversity is one of VU’s most important values. The VU Amsterdam believes that engaging in international activities and welcoming students and staff from a wide variety of backgrounds enhances the quality of our education and research.
Organizers
Francesca Bacco
Francesca Bacco is an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Department of Management and Organisation of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She holds a PhD in Management from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, and was a postdoc at Bocconi University prior to joining VU Amsterdam. In her research, she studies how individuals concerned with introducing novel products and strategies (e.g., entrepreneurs) make sense of their strategies and communicate them to others. Within this context, her research explores systematic approaches (e.g., rational experimentation) and discursive tactics that can help these individuals be more effective in framing their strategies and gain legitimacy for their ideas.
Rebecca C. Ruehle
Rebecca C. Ruehle is an assistant professor at the School of Economics and Business of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Department of Management & Organization. Rebecca completed the Wittenberg Center for Global Ethics, doctoral program “Ethics and Responsible Leadership in Business” in 2019 and received a PhD from the University of Halle Wittenberg in May 2020. Beforehand she graduated from the University of St Andrews with an MLitt in Moral, Political and Legal Philosophy and the University of Mannheim with an MA studying topics in Philosophy, Management, and Psychology. Between 2009 and 2015 she also worked for IBM Germany with overseas assignments in the USA and China. During those six years she mainly supported the Corporate Citizenship department. In her research she is interested in the normative aspects of the concept of organizational legitimacy (next to many other topics in the field of business ethics).
Evelina Gillard
Evelina Gillard is a third-year part-time doctoral researcher at the Department of Management and Organization, School of Business and Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her research interests reside at the intersection of organizational behavior, strategy, and organizational theory fields. Her current Ph.D. research focuses on social evaluations – such as legitimacy – that employees make about an organization, its human resources, and other departments. Her research prior to the Ph.D. program at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam includes publications on procedural corruption as illegitimate use of authority in service organizations. Past recipient of the French Government Postgraduate Scholarship for Ukrainians and holder of the master’s degree in business administration, Evelina has several years of professional experience in the international real estate management, automobile, and service industry. She is currently working in a private hospitality business management school Cesar Ritz Colleges Switzerland.
Saeed Khanagha
Saeed Khanagha is an Associate Professor of Strategy at the Department of Management and Organization at VU Amsterdam. He earned his PhD in 2015 from Erasmus University Rotterdam. Dr. Khanagha has close collaborations with both academic and industrial organizations. His research broadly focuses on understanding the factors that determine the success of organizations in adopting emerging digital technologies at the individual, team, organization, and ecosystem levels, using a variety of qualitative and quantitative data methods including single case studies, multiple case studies, surveys, and experimental design. His ongoing research primarily explores the different dimensions of strategizing for digital technologies, especially digital platforms and ecosystems. His research has been published in outlets such as the Strategic Management Journal, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Journal of Management Studies, Long Range Planning, Journal of Product Innovation Management, and Journal of Strategic Information Systems. He has edited special issues and serves as editorial board members in Long Range Planning and Journal of Management Studies. He has co-organized several events, including two extensions to the SMS annual conferences in Stockholm (2015) and Amsterdam (2018), and three panel sessions that bring practitioners and scholars together in interactive settings.
Jost Sieweke
Jost Sieweke is an associate professor of strategic leadership at VU Amsterdam. In his research, Jost focuses on topics such as strategic leadership, legitimacy, and human errors. He is also the program director of the Executive MBA: Leading with Purpose at VU Amsterdam.
Tijs van den Broek
Tijs van den Broek is assistant professor at VU Amsterdam’s Organization Sciences department in the fields of legitimacy, social media, corporate social responsibility, and social movements. Tijs obtained a master’s degree in both Industrial Engineering & Management and Psychology (cum laude) from the University of Twente, and defended (cum laude) his dissertation ‘When Slacktivism Matters’ at the same university. His research interests include social evaluation of organizations (e.g. legitimacy and authenticity), online forms of organizing (e.g. slacktivism and corporate stance-taking) and online polarization. Tijs co-authored publications in journals such as Organization Science, Social Networks, Journal of Business Ethics, New Media & Society and Sociology of Health & Illness. Tijs is research director of the Organization Sciences department, and a member of VU’s Resilience, Security & Civil Unrest (ReSCU) lab and Network Institute.
Experts
Alex Bitektine
Alex Bitektine is Professor of Management in the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada) and Canada Research Chair in Institutions and Strategic Entrepreneurship, Tier II. He holds PhD and MBA from McGill University. His research interests include institutional theory, entrepreneurship, social judgments, and other related topics. He serves on editorial boards of the Academy of Management Review, Strategic Organization, and the Academy of Management Learning and Education and serves as senior editor at Organization Studies journal.
Patrick Haack
Patrick is a Professor of Strategy and Responsible Management in the Department of Strategy, Globalization and Society at HEC Lausanne, University of Lausanne. He serves as the Director of the HEC Research Center for Grand Challenges and is an International Research Fellow at the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation. Patrick’s research interests center on the organizational adoption and implementation of CSR as well as the application of experiments and formal models to the study of strategy and organizational processes. A major focus of his current research relates to the conceptual and empirical exploration of legitimacy, a crucial antecedent of social and institutional change. In this context, he is examining legitimacy dynamics in the fields of tax avoidance, anti-corruption, and human rights. Together with Anna Jasinenko, he hosted the first legitimacy workshop at HEC Lausanne in May 2023. One of his emerging research streams is the study of “intergenerational discounting,” a psychological tendency to perceive a desired result for future generations as less valuable than an equivalent result for the present generation.
Laura Illia
Laura Illia is Professor of Communication, Business and Social Responsibility at the Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Science (University of Fribourg), Switzerland. Her work is on how discourses and narratives contribute to our understanding of business in a new media landscape where Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking the advent. By applying new digital methods such as machine learning to big dataset she analyzes the legitimation of organizations on social media and the use of new media by companies in the dialogue with their stakeholders.
Anna Jasinenko
Anna Jasinenko is Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at the University of St. Gallen. She holds a PhD in management from the HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management and a Master’s degree in psychology from the University of Vienna. In her research, Anna applies a social evaluation lens to theorize and analyze how organizations contribute to the common good and grand societal challenges. For example, she examines the micro-foundations and multi-level interactions of legitimacy evaluations of responsible business practices, such as organizational purpose or public value. In her work, she uses experimental and multi-method approaches.
Yuri Mishina
Yuri Mishina is an associate professor of organisational behaviour and strategy in the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship at Imperial College Business School. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in organizational theory with a minor in strategic management. He also has an MBA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.A. in economics from the University of Chicago. Prior to joining Imperial College, he was an assistant professor of management at Michigan State University. His research examines how top management team and stakeholder belief systems influence a firm’s strategic choices and outcomes. His research has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, and Strategic Management Journal and he is currently an editorial review board member of the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, and Strategic Management Journal and an International Research Fellow of the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation.
Sonia S. Siraz
Sonia S. Siraz is an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Essex (UK) and will join Emlyon Business School (France) in September 2024. She holds a Ph.D. in entrepreneurship and organization theory from IE Business School (Spain) and was a postdoc collaborating with Sharon Alvarez at the University of Pittsburgh (USA). Before entering management academia, Sonia specialized in international and EU law, worked as an Assistant Professor of Law in France, and was an entrepreneur, founding her consultancy firm with a portfolio of clients ranging from governmental authorities to SMEs. Her research leverages her previous experiences and investigates how legitimacy perceptions in complex environments enhance or constrain the success of controversial organizations and entrepreneurial endeavors across varied settings (e.g.: foie gras, cannabis, fracking, or indigenous communities and underrepresented entrepreneurs). Specifically, she focuses on theoretically and empirically analyzing the grey area between legitimacy and illegitimacy, the interplay between validity, validity beliefs, and propriety, as well as legitimacy implications for minority entrepreneurs (ethno-racial, gender, immigrant, etc..). To carry out her research, Sonia primarily uses experiments and quantitative text analysis.
Karl Taeuscher
Karl is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester. Karl’s main research interests are related to entrepreneurial ventures’ storytelling, positioning, categorization, and framing strategies, particularly as they relate to ventures’ differentiation, legitimation, and resource acquisition. Most of his research projects are set in the context of online platforms and platform-based markets.