Abstract
With the focus on the property aspect of legitimacy in existing entrepreneurship research, the dynamic process of legitimation is somewhat neglected. In particular, we still have a limited understanding of how actors legitimize themselves, given the different facets of the legitimation process. This paper addresses this gap by empirically investigating how female successors legitimize their successor identity in the external legitimation and self-legitimation processes in family business. Through the expert sampling and snowball approach, we draw upon empirical evidence from 69 interviews to present seven practices in three strategies and the legitimacy dynamics in legitimation processes.
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