Institutionalizing women’s enterprise policy: a legitimacy-based perspective

Arshed, N., Chalmers, D. and Matthews, R. (2019) Institutionalizing women’s enterprise policy: a legitimacy-based perspective. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 43(3), pp. 553-581. (doi: 10.1177/1042258718803341)

Abstract

Despite efforts to increase the quantity and quality of women-owned businesses, enterprise policy has enjoyed only modest success. This article explores the role of legitimacy in these outcomes by examining how and when individual stakeholders evaluate and then influence the legitimacy of women’s enterprise policy. We draw on 45 interviews with actors in the UK enterprise policy ecosystem and an ethnographic study of the policy process. We present a multilevel model of two opposing legitimacy processes: a legitimacy repair loop and a delegitimizing loop. In doing so, we provide a novel perspective on policy institutionalizing.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Chalmers, Professor Dominic
• Authors: Arshed, N., Chalmers, D., and Matthews, R.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Management
• Journal Name: Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice
• Publisher: SAGE
• ISSN: 1042-2587
• ISSN (Online): 1540-6520
• Published Online: 03 October 2018
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2019 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 43(3):553-581
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy