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Legitimizing tactics and the performance of home-based businesses
Abstract
This dissertation attempted to develop and test a theoretical model describing the effectiveness of legitimizing tactics, or practices, on Home-Based Business (HBB) performance. The research provided insights into the relationship between the legitimacy tactics—regulative, normative, and cognitive—which were used by HBB owners in response to pressures for establishing and maintaining legitimacy and credibility for their businesses. HBB owners may be able to enhance their performance through better understanding and management of their organizational legitimacy and credibility. This may reduce any liability of alegitimacy that HBBs can encounter or experience. The study revealed that different sources of legitimizing practices appear to have different effects on HBB performance. For the sample as a whole, HBB performance was positively related to regulative legitimizing practices. The fine-grained analysis revealed differences in effective legitimizing practices by both industry and location sectors. The businesses investigated were from three distinct industry sectors, namely construction, retail, and business services, and two location sectors, rural and non-rural. Regulative and cognitive practices explained significant incremental variance beyond the other relevant variables identified from prior research which could have potentially affected performance. Normative practices were found to be insignificant as measured. The results demonstrated strong support for the use of regulative practices in four out of five of the sectors, except business services which showed moderate support for cognitive practices.
Subject Area
Management|Business community
Recommended Citation
Henderson, Dale Allen, "Legitimizing tactics and the performance of home-based businesses" (1998). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9917833.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9917833