Contending with Perceived Legitimacy Tensions: Impact Investing in Pluralistic Institutional Environments

Jessica Jones and Alex Murray

Journal of Management Studies, 2026, vol. 63, issue 1, 232-269

Abstract: This study advances our understanding of new venture legitimacy and resource acquisition by broadening the epistemological scope of our theory to be inclusive of non‐Western contexts. We conducted a qualitative study of entrepreneurs from India, Kenya, and Mexico seeking impact investments from Western impact investors to better understand how entrepreneurs in non‐Western contexts contend with perceived legitimacy tensions that arise when pursuing financial resources from non‐local investors. In contrast to the prevailing assumption that non‐Western entrepreneurs are resource‐constrained and adhere to existing strategies to seek legitimacy from financial resource providers, we find that such entrepreneurs perceive their local institutional environment to have important non‐financial resources that impact how they seek legitimacy from financial resource providers. This study offers a novel conceptualization of new venture legitimation by acknowledging non‐Western and Western institutional environments as important considerations in how entrepreneurs navigate legitimacy with both financial and non‐financial audiences over time.

Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.13233

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:63:y:2026:i:1:p:232-269

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... s.asp?ref=00022-2380

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Management Studies is currently edited by Timothy Clark, Steven W. Floyd and Mike Wright

More articles in Journal of Management Studies from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().