Effect of Social Pressure and Trust on Organizational Legitimacy: A Retailing Sector Perspective

Susana Díaz-ıglesias, Gabriel Cachón-rodríguez and Giorgia Miotto
Additional contact information
Susana Díaz-ıglesias: Rey Juan Carlos University
Gabriel Cachón-rodríguez: Rey Juan Carlos University
Giorgia Miotto: EADA Business School

Journal of Economy Culture and Society, 2025, vol. 70y, issue 71, 57-72

Abstract: Enterprises operate in complex and competitive environments where stakeholders have become more demanding regarding corporate behavior. Organizations must respond to social demands and build trust among stakeholders to be perceived as legitimate. Positive legitimacy evaluations give companies better access to relevant resources, stakeholder support, higher purchasing levels, or stronger commitment. In the retailing sector, competition has strengthened even more than in other sectors due to the complexity of differentiation through tangible matters. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to analyze the effect of social pressure and trust on organizational legitimacy. Next, the impact of legitimacy on consumer purchase intention and engagement will be analyzed. An online survey was distributed among Spanish consumers to achieve this purpose, gathering 200 valid responses. To treat the data, PLS-SEM was applied, and the results confirmed a positive and significant relationship between trust, social pressure, and legitimacy, as well as between legitimacy, engagement, and purchase intention. This situation reflects the importance of appropriate corporate behavior for the success of corporations. The implications of this research can be used by retailing sector managers to improve their social acceptance, ensure long lasting relationships, and improve sales in the future.

Keywords: social pressure; trust; legitimacy; purchase intention; engagement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/4B902ABA24B94D658EC8B2B473112339 (application/pdf)
https://iupress.istanbul.edu.tr/en/journal/jecs/ar ... g-sector-perspective (text/html)

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:ist:iujecs:v:70y:2025:i:0:p:57-72

DOI: 10.26650/JECS2024-1553125

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economy Culture and Society is currently edited by Veysel Bozkurt

More articles in Journal of Economy Culture and Society from Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Istanbul University Press Operational Team (Ertuğrul YAŞAR) ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).