Exploring legitimacy for women entrepreneurs in digital spaces

Conveying legitimacy is a recognised influence upon early-stage entrepreneurial success, however there has been little research in understanding the impact of this for women in an evolving digital age. Research which enables women-led businesses to improve longevity rates by overcoming barriers to survival and scale (APPG, 2018) could support the UK Government's Industrial Strategy goal to develop the world's most innovative economy (Gov.uk, 2018). As legitimacy represents relationship-building with audiences (Suchman, 1995) which increasingly occurs on digital platforms (Nambisan, 2017), this project aligns with 'management of relationships via digital media and technologies' as proposed in the ESRC Scoping Review: 'Ways of being in a digital age' (ESRC, 2017). This project explores legitimacy for women entrepreneurs in digital spaces, questioning if women recognise and present themselves as gendered actors to different online audiences and how this affects intended or actual legitimacy claims.
Legitimacy is a socially constructed perception or assumption (Suchman, 1995), providing access to vital resources (Lounsbury and Glynn, 2001). Fisher et al (2017) emphasise the importance of tailoring legitimacy to different audiences, yet in digital environments, content is widely accessible. Audience interaction may allow delegitimising broadcasts of negative content (Fischer and Reuber, 2011) which can spread exponentially, becoming "viral" (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2011). It may become opinion-based or aggressive (Pfeffer et al, 2013), threatening an entrepreneur's legitimacy claims. Entrepreneurs can draw upon their values and beliefs to navigate delegitimising events (O'Neil and Ucbasaran, 2016). Yet, for entrepreneurs whose values underpin their branding, it is unclear how they develop strategies for audiences who can unexpectedly endorse/criticise at any time. This research connects with these ideas, seeking to address issues such as how entrepreneurs might respond to online criticism and designing effective legitimacy strategies.
Masculine ideals associated with legitimacy (Bird and Brush, 2002) may create complications for women entrepreneurs, yet little is known about how gender shapes the design of legitimacy strategies in response to, or anticipation of, prevailing masculine discourses. Digital technologies have encouraged unconventional entrepreneurial models such as soteriological entrepreneurship, defined as a growing trend among women to be role models by commoditising their desirable lifestyles to other women (Neergaard and Christensen, 2017). Understanding how unconventional women legitimise themselves to online audiences is important as women entrepreneurs are rare as positive role models (Marlow, 2012). In contrast, do gender-blind women, i.e. those concealing/denying gender disadvantage to access neutral (masculine) domains (Lewis, 2006), intentionally obscure their gender online. If so, do they create legitimacy constraints by perpetuating gender-neutral expectations? Rather than deploying a legitimacy solution worthy of imitation, do they become part of the problem they tried to conceal?
Research into how legitimacy judgements differ across audiences is limited (Navis and Glynn, 2011) and does not reflect growing complexities and heterogeneity of organisations' stakeholder environments (Uberbacher, 2014). This project addresses these concerns, whilst also exploring the approaches of women in digital spaces for whom gender can influence legitimacy (Martinez Dy et al, 2017). It recognises urgency for new sources of productivity improvement that are crucial for economic prosperity (ESRC, 2015). Through new evidence and insights, it is hoped that the impact of this research will reach beyond academia by reducing entrepreneurial gender bias issues and helping practitioners to engage effectively with legitimacy-related opportunities of digital technologies.