Gaining legitimacy through proactive stakeholder management: The experiences of high-tech women entrepreneurs in Russia

Natalia Vershinina, Peter Rodgers, Shlomo Tarba, Zaheer Khan and Peter Stokes

Journal of Business Research, 2020, vol. 119, issue C, 111-121

Abstract: In this article, we offer insights into the critical role played by stakeholder relationships for female-owned high-technology firms in their pursuit of the legitimacy they need to acquire the resources that, in turn, will lead to sustainable innovation and firm growth. By reporting the findings drawn from interviews conducted with Russian female business owners, we showcase how, being faced with the liabilities of smallness and newness—which are further exacerbated by gender-associated liabilities—these entrepreneurs develop strategies suited to assist their entrepreneurial ventures. Within the nascent high-technology global sphere, these female entrepreneurs develop legitimacy for their ventures abroad by accessing external international stakeholders, which leads them to securing much-needed financial and knowledge resources. In addition, their ties with international stakeholders enable them to gain legitimacy among internal Russian stakeholders, thus further enhancing the innovation and performance of their ventures.

Keywords: High technology sector; Women entrepreneurs; Stakeholder relationships; Innovation management; Global networks; Institutions; Legitimacy; Russia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296318306829
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:jbrese:v:119:y:2020:i:c:p:111-121

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.12.063

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside

More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().