Legitimation Strategies of Wirecard's CEO, Dr Markus Braun

Peter Daly and Philippe Touron ()
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Peter Daly: EDHEC - EDHEC Business School - UCL - Université catholique de Lille
Philippe Touron: UP1 UFR06 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - UFR Gestion & économie d'entreprise - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, PRISM Sorbonne - Pôle de recherche interdisciplinaire en sciences du management - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

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Abstract: This study examines how Dr Markus Braun, CEO of Wirecard, constructed legitimation when faced with allegations from financial news reporters. It contributes to research into the legitimation strategies deployed by CEOs to construct a certain truth, justify corporate values and reassure stakeholders on business practices and draws on and extends Van Leeuwen's (2007) legitimation framework. Seven conference talks and nine financial news reports with Markus Braun were closely analyzed to reveal the discursive strategies employed to legitimize accounting fraud when facing allegations from the Financial Times. The findings reveal a focus on unverifiable prefactual future visioning that is difficult to contradict as it may or may not happen in the future; a de-agentization strategy from personal authorization to impersonal or expert authorization when facing allegations and thorny issues related to fraud; an altruistic and often abstract moralization; and organizational storytelling with emotional appeals and us/them dichotomies to position Wirecard as the hero. The findings advance understanding on how Braun discursively constructed and maintained corporate legitimacy during the Wirecard scandal and provide further insights into corporate legitimation by dishonest CEOs.

Keywords: This study examines how Dr Markus Braun; CEO of Wirecard; constructed legitimation when faced with allegations from financial news reporters. It contributes to research into the legitimation strategies deployed by CEOs to construct a certain truth; justify corporate values and reassure stakeholders on business practices and draws on and extends Van Leeuwen's (2007) legitimation framework. Seven conference talks and nine financial news reports with Markus Braun were closely analyzed to reveal the discursive strategies employed to legitimize accounting fraud when facing allegations from the Financial Times. The findings reveal a focus on unverifiable prefactual future visioning that is difficult to contradict as it may or may not happen in the future; a de-agentization strategy from personal authorization to impersonal or expert authorization when facing allegations and thorny issues related to fraud; an altruistic and often abstract moralization; and organizational storytelling with emotional appeals and us/them dichotomies to position Wirecard as the hero. The findings advance understanding on how Braun discursively constructed and maintained corporate legitimacy during the Wirecard scandal and provide further insights into corporate legitimation by dishonest CEOs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-05-19
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Published in 15th GEM&L international Conference on Management and Language, Research Group on Management & Language, May 2022, Passau, Germany

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