NASCENT SOCIAL VENTURES AND THEIR QUEST FOR LEGITIMACY: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF ORGANIZATIONAL EMERGENCE

Purpose: This study examines why some social ventures become organizations and others do not by examining the relationship between the conforming and strategic processes to start a social venture and venture launch. Design/methodology/approach: This is a longitudinal study of 48 nascent social ventures that participated in entrepreneurship competitions in the United States from 2005 to 2009. Based on a legitimacy perspective, the study assess the factors that predict organizational emergence by conducting a content analysis of social venture business plans, a follow-up survey, and then hierarchical logistic regression to examine the hypothesized effects. Findings: The exploratory findings suggest that elements of both conforming and strategic legitimacy individually predict organizational emergence. Particularly lead entrepreneur, organization team, and impression management behaviors are important. While prior research on nascent commercial ventures finds strategic legitimacy important and a diminished role of conforming legitimacy, this study suggests that conforming legitimacy at the earliest stages increases the likelihood of social venture launch, which might be due to the more complex and unknown institutional environment of social ventures. Nascent social ventures might rely more on the lead entrepreneur and organizational team to successfully emerge. Research/practical implications: The findings suggest initial evidence into the important role of conforming legitimacy and impression management for the organizational emergence of nascent social ventures. It suggests that the lead entrepreneur and organization experience as well as understanding how to manage impressions are important skills for nascent social venture organizational emergence. Future studies might analyze the role of conforming and strategic legitimacy of ventures and their institutional context and their role in organization emergence. Originality/value: This study contributes to scholarship on social entrepreneurship by providing one of the few longitudinal empirical studies of nascent social ventures, while providing insight into the role of process dimensions on organizational emergence in social ventures.