Bringing new customs to an old village: rhetorical legitimation strategies in a peripheral country

Abstract

Actors' efforts against surrounding institutional pressures to pursue legitimacy are critical. Although scholars have mainly focused on the importance of gaining legitimacy, little is known about the context-specific rhetorical strategies of the actors to legitimate the business model in a peripheral country. In this article, based on extensive material, efforts behind the legitimation of a new airline business model in a peripheral country were explored. This study employed a qualitative research method. The data set consisting of multiple secondary data was analyzed based on the content analysis. Drawing on new institutional theory, this study contributes to previous studies on legitimation and business models by showing actors’ arguments content and providing a more nuanced understanding of how actors work on legitimation and how they use context-specific explanations during this legitimation process.