IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/krk/eberjl/v4y2016i3p181-193.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corporate Reputation and Performance: A Legitimacy Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Honggui Li

    (School of Business Administration, Anhui University of Finance & Economics, China)

  • Zhongwei Chen

    (School of Business Administration, Anhui University of Finance & Economics, China)

  • Guoxin Ma

    (Hull University Business School, UK)

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of innovation legitimacy between corporate reputation and enterprise growth. Research Design & Methods: Four hypotheses were formulated and tested in to achieve the research objective. We collected data from 191 enterprises in 16 provinces in China. In total, 300 enterprises were selected to participate in this study. Descriptive analyses showed that the valid data covered a wide range of samples in terms of enterprise types and sizes, industries, market positions and years of establishment. The data was analysed by regression analysis. Findings: The results of this research suggest that corporate reputation has significant positive relationship with enterprise growth. This positive relationship was found through all pathways tested. This means that brand image, social responsibility, innovation capability and staff quality are all important to enterprise growth. Similar effects were found for innovation legitimacy on enterprise growth, indicating that legitimacy is an important theoretical perspective in understanding how businesses could develop in various important aspects. Implications & Recommendations: Legitimacy is an important theoretical framework in understanding the complex relationships between corporate reputation and enterprise growth, especially from the innovation perspective. Future research may look into these results in other contexts and further pursue the legitimacy perspective in understanding corporate reputation and enterprise growth. Contribution & Value Added: This research contributes towards understanding the mediating effects of innovation legitimacy between corporate reputation and performance, especially in Chinese context.

Suggested Citation

  • Honggui Li & Zhongwei Chen & Guoxin Ma, 2016. "Corporate Reputation and Performance: A Legitimacy Perspective," Entrepreneurial Business and Economics Review, Centre for Strategic and International Entrepreneurship at the Cracow University of Economics., vol. 4(3), pages 181-193.
    • Handle: RePEc:krk:eberjl:v:4:y:2016:i:3:p:181-193
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://eber.uek.krakow.pl/index.php/eber/article/download/185/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ardichvili, Alexander & Cardozo, Richard & Ray, Sourav, 2003. "A theory of entrepreneurial opportunity identification and development," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 105-123, January.
    2. Dev K. Dutta & Mary M. Crossan, 2005. "The Nature of Entrepreneurial Opportunities: Understanding the Process Using the 4I Organizational Learning Framework," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 29(4), pages 425-449, July.
    3. Ucbasaran, Deniz & Westhead, Paul & Wright, Mike, 2009. "The extent and nature of opportunity identification by experienced entrepreneurs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 99-115, March.
    4. Johanna Mair & Ignasi Marti, 2006. "Social Entrepreneurship Research: A Source of Explanation, Prediction, and Delight," Post-Print hal-02311880, HAL.
    5. Zahra, Shaker A. & Korri, Juha Santeri & Yu, JiFeng, 2005. "Cognition and international entrepreneurship: implications for research on international opportunity recognition and exploitation," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 129-146, April.
    6. Davidsson, Per & Honig, Benson, 2003. "The role of social and human capital among nascent entrepreneurs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 301-331, May.
    7. Mark Casson & Nigel Wadeson, 2007. "The Discovery of Opportunities: Extending the Economic Theory of the Entrepreneur," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 285-300, April.
    8. Jeroen de Jong, 2009. "The decision to innovate: Antecedents of opportunity exploitation in high tech small firms," Scales Research Reports H200902, EIM Business and Policy Research.
    9. Lawrence Plummer & J. Haynie & Joy Godesiabois, 2007. "An Essay on the Origins of Entrepreneurial Opportunity," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 363-379, April.
    10. Howard E. Aldrich & Martha Argelia Martinez, 2007. "Many are Called, but Few are Chosen: An Evolutionary Perspective for the Study of Entrepreneurship," Springer Books, in: Álvaro Cuervo & Domingo Ribeiro & Salvador Roig (ed.), Entrepreneurship, pages 293-311, Springer.
    11. Choi, Young Rok & Lévesque, Moren & Shepherd, Dean A., 2008. "When should entrepreneurs expedite or delay opportunity exploitation?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 333-355, May.
    12. Holcombe, Randall G, 2003. "The Origins of Entrepreneurial Opportunities," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 16(1), pages 25-43, March.
    13. Dahlqvist, Jonas & Wiklund, Johan, 2012. "Measuring the market newness of new ventures," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 185-196.
    14. Yosem Companys & Jeffery McMullen, 2007. "Strategic Entrepreneurs at Work: The Nature, Discovery, and Exploitation of Entrepreneurial Opportunities," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 301-322, April.
    15. Scott Shane, 2000. "Prior Knowledge and the Discovery of Entrepreneurial Opportunities," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 11(4), pages 448-469, August.
    16. Peredo, Ana María & McLean, Murdith, 2006. "Social entrepreneurship: A critical review of the concept," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 56-65, February.
    17. Dimo Dimov, 2007. "Beyond the Single-Person, Single-Insight Attribution in Understanding Entrepreneurial Opportunities," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 31(5), pages 713-731, September.
    18. Dean A. Shepherd & Dawn R. DeTienne, 2005. "Prior Knowledge, Potential Financial Reward, and Opportunity Identification," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 29(1), pages 91-112, January.
    19. Mair, Johanna & Martí, Ignasi, 2006. "Social entrepreneurship research: A source of explanation, prediction, and delight," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 36-44, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nguyen Van Nguyen & Quang Linh Huynh, 2019. "The Importance of Earning Quality and Organizational Reputation to Financial Effectiveness," International Journal of Asian Social Science, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 9(7), pages 406-416, July.
    2. Saeed Siyal & Riaz Ahmad & Samina Riaz & Chunlin Xin & Tang Fangcheng, 2022. "The Impact of Corporate Culture on Corporate Social Responsibility: Role of Reputation and Corporate Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-21, August.
    3. Quang Linh Huynh, 2019. "Link from Organizational Financial Performance to Reputation: The Role of Board Composition," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 9(1), pages 109-117, January.
    4. Tom Christensen & Liang Ma, 2021. "Comparing SARS and COVID-19: Challenges of Governance Capacity and Legitimacy," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 629-645, December.
    5. Miotto, Giorgia & Del-Castillo-Feito, Cristina & Blanco-González, Alicia, 2020. "Reputation and legitimacy: Key factors for Higher Education Institutions’ sustained competitive advantage," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 342-353.
    6. Díez-Martín, Francisco & Miotto, Giorgia & Cachón-Rodríguez, Gabriel, 2022. "Organizational legitimacy perception: Gender and uncertainty as bias for evaluation criteria," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 426-436.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jolita Greblikaite & Włodzimierz Sroka & Neringa Gerulaitiene, 2016. "Involving Young People in Polish and Lithuanian Social Enterprises by Fostering Entrepreneurial Skills and Abilities as Entrepreneurial Opportunity at University," Entrepreneurial Business and Economics Review, Centre for Strategic and International Entrepreneurship at the Cracow University of Economics., vol. 4(3), pages 131-152.
    2. Nerine Mary George & Vinit Parida & Tom Lahti & Joakim Wincent, 2016. "A systematic literature review of entrepreneurial opportunity recognition: insights on influencing factors," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 309-350, June.
    3. Eduard-Gabriel Ceptureanu & Sebastian-Ion Ceptureanu & Mihai Cristian Orzan & Ovidiu Niculae Bordean & Violeta Radulescu, 2017. "Empirical Study on Sustainable Opportunities Recognition. A Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Joinery Industry Analysis Using Augmented Sustainable Development Process Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-36, September.
    4. Vandor, Peter & Franke, Nikolaus, 2016. "See Paris and… found a business? The impact of cross-cultural experience on opportunity recognition capabilities," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 388-407.
    5. Zhang, Ying & Xu, Nan & Frost, Mark & Zhou, Wei & Li, Yuran, 2021. "Modeling team efficiency for international production assignments in Chinese manufacturing multinationals," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    6. Othmar M. Lehner & Juha Kansikas, 2012. "Opportunity Recognition in Social Entrepreneurship," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 21(1), pages 25-58, March.
    7. Warnick, Benjamin J. & Kier, Alexander S. & LaFrance, Emily M. & Cuttler, Carrie, 2021. "Head in the clouds? Cannabis users' creativity in new venture ideation depends on their entrepreneurial passion and experience," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(2).
    8. Étienne St-Jean & Maripier Tremblay & Frank Janssen & Jacques Baronet & Christophe Loué & Aziz Nafa, 2017. "May business mentors act as opportunity brokers and enablers among university students?," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 97-111, March.
    9. Tischler, Joachim, 2014. "Characteristics of technological base, pace of technological development, and growth of young technology-based firms," EconStor Preprints 96156, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    10. repec:dau:papers:123456789/8470 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Shepherd, Dean A. & Sattari, Rose & Patzelt, Holger, 2022. "A social model of opportunity development: Building and engaging communities of inquiry," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 37(1).
    12. Pindado, Emilio & Sánchez, Mercedes & Verstegen, Jos A.A.M. & Lans, Thomas, 2018. "Searching for the entrepreneurs among new entrants in European Agriculture: the role of human and social capital," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 19-30.
    13. Matthew R. Marvel & G. T. Lumpkin, 2017. "Domain Learning and Opportunity Development in a High-Tech Context," Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 25(01), pages 67-96, March.
    14. Frederiks, Arjan J. & Englis, Basil G. & Ehrenhard, Michel L. & Groen, Aard J., 2019. "Entrepreneurial cognition and the quality of new venture ideas: An experimental approach to comparing future-oriented cognitive processes," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 327-347.
    15. Uwe Cantner & Philip Doerr & Maximilian Goethner & Matthias Huegel & Martin Kalthaus, 2024. "A procedural perspective on academic spin-off creation: the changing relative importance of the academic and the commercial sphere," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 62(4), pages 1555-1590, April.
    16. Niklas Åkerman, 2015. "International opportunity realization in firm internationalization: Non-linear effects of market-specific knowledge and internationalization knowledge," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 242-259, September.
    17. Shu, Rui & Ren, Shenggang & Zheng, Yi, 2018. "Building networks into discovery: The link between entrepreneur network capability and entrepreneurial opportunity discovery," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 197-208.
    18. Vincent Lefebvre & Miruna Radu Lefebvre, 2012. "Integrating Corporate Social Responsibility at the Start-up Level: Constraint or Catalyst for Opportunity Identification?," Post-Print hal-00836856, HAL.
    19. Heiko Bergmann, 2017. "The formation of opportunity beliefs among university entrepreneurs: an empirical study of research- and non-research-driven venture ideas," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 116-140, February.
    20. D’Angelo, Alfredo & Presutti, Manuela, 2019. "SMEs international growth: The moderating role of experience on entrepreneurial and learning orientations," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 613-624.
    21. Peter Klein & Per Bylund, 2014. "The place of Austrian economics in contemporary entrepreneurship research," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 27(3), pages 259-279, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    corporate reputation; enterprise growth; legitimacy; innovation; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:krk:eberjl:v:4:y:2016:i:3:p:181-193. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Piotr Stanek, PhD. (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aekrapl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.