Desperately Seeking Legitimacy: Organizational Identity and Emerging Industries

In this article we examine the process of organizational identity formation in emerging industries. We argue that organizational identity is best understood in terms of the relationship between temporal difference (i.e. the performance of a stable identity over time) and spatial difference (i.e. by...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Organization studies 2007-04, Vol.28 (4), p.495-513
Main Authors:	Clegg, Stewart R., Rhodes, Carl, Kornberger, Martin
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Australia Business management Business organization Business studies Corporate identity Emerging markets Entrepreneurship Industrial organization Organization theory Organizational behavior Studies
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	In this article we examine the process of organizational identity formation in emerging industries. We argue that organizational identity is best understood in terms of the relationship between temporal difference (i.e. the performance of a stable identity over time) and spatial difference (i.e. by locating organizational identity in relation to other firms, both similar and different). It is the relationship between these two forms of difference that enables the construction of a legitimate sense of organizational identity. Our discussion is illustrated using empirical material from a study of the emerging industry of business coaching in Australia.
ISSN:	0170-8406 1741-3044