The Iterative Process of Legitimacy-Building in Hybrid Organizations

• Date: 01 July 2022
• DOI: 10.1177/00953997211055102
• Published date: 01 July 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997211055102

Administration & Society

2022, Vol. 54(6) 1117 –1147

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/00953997211055102

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Article

The Iterative Process of

Legitimacy-Building in

Hybrid Organizations

Christian Rosser1, Sabrina A. Ilgenstein2,

and Fritz Sager2

Abstract

Hybrid organizations face the fundamental challenge of building legitimacy.

To deal with this challenge in administrative theory and practice, we apply an

analytical framework following an organizational logic of legitimacy building

to an exemplary case of hybridity—the Swiss Institute for Translational

and Entrepreneurial Medicine. Our framework application illustrates that

pragmatic legitimacy (i.e., establishing instrumental value) must be built

before moral legitimacy (i.e., fostering normative evaluation) and cognitive

legitimacy (i.e., creating comprehensibility), followed by an iterative process

of mutual influence between the legitimacy forms. Originating in the

management literature, the framework promises new insights for public

administration research on hybrids.

Keywords

organizational legitimacy, hybrid organizations, public private partnership,

innovation, stakeholder inclusion

1Swiss Institute for Translational and Entrepreneurial Medicine, Bern, Switzerland

2KPM Center for Public Management, University of Bern, Switzerland

Corresponding Author:

Christian Rosser, Swiss Institute for Translational and Entrepreneurial Medicine,

Freiburgstrasse 3, Bern 3010, Switzerland.

Email: christian.rosser@sitem-insel.ch

1055102AAS0010.1177/00953997211055102Administration & SocietyRosser et al.

research-article2021

1118 Administration & Society 54(6)

Introduction

Legitimacy is the property that is most important to the sustainable success

and existence of a hybrid organization (Gulbrandsen, 2011). Research shows

that organizations with greater legitimacy achieve better organizational

results and that resources can be more easily transferred into the organiza-

tional system in a sustainable way (Díez-Martín et al., 2013; Dowling &

Pfeffer, 1975; Zimmerman & Zeitz, 2002). This paper addresses the chal-

lenge of building legitimacy in contemporary hybrid organizations, in which

structures and processes of policy making and implementation cut across

public and private boundaries (Thomann et al., 2016). Specifically, we aim to

answer the following research question: how do hybrid organizations build

legitimacy?

In order to address this question, we apply an analytical framework con-

sisting of the organizational logic of pragmatic, moral, and cognitive legiti-

macy (Suchman, 1995) to the real-world single case of the Swiss Institute for

Translational and Entrepreneurial Medicine (sitem-insel) (Rosser et al.,

2020). The sitem-insel, which has been established in 2019 on the campus of

the University Hospital in Bern, Switzerland, serves as our exemplary case

where the relevant object of investigation—the need for legitimacy building

in a hybrid organization—is visible in a particularly pronounced way

(Gerring, 2006). As regards method, the paper builds on a qualitative content

analysis (Mayring, 2004; Sager & Rosser, 2015) of documents and expert

interviews from the investigation period between 2008 and 2020.

Instead of the primacy of the state in public service delivery, a broad

principle of subsidiarity applies today (Koppenjan et al., 2019; Rosser,

2017). This principle extends, for instance, through public-private partner-

ships beyond the state administration to privately organized service provid-

ers (Torchia et al., 2015). While the latter mainly need to ensure that services

be delivered effectively and efficiently, public organizations must also do

justice to the democratic principles of popular control and participation

(Klijn & Edelenbos, 2013). Accordingly, building legitimacy is a tricky

challenge per se, which becomes even trickier for hybrid organizations mix-

ing institutional elements as well as organizational identities, forms, and

action logics of both the public and the private sectors (Battilana & Lee,

2014; Johanson & Vakkuri, 2017; Nederhand & Klijn, 2019). This is no

trivial fact as studies on hybrid organizations and organizational legitimacy

originate largely from the field of organization studies whose “theoretical

works [. . .] usually lack attention to the crucial role of politics in designing

and implementing change and creating hybridity in public services organiza-

tions” (Denis et al., 2015, p. 285).