Abstract
This paper specifically seeks to examine legitimacy perceptions in an entrepreneurial environment. It aims to shed light on how validity cues in the form of stereotypes impact the legitimacy perception of failed entrepreneurs. More specifically, this work investigates how gender and nationality stereotypes affect the legitimacy evaluation of failed entrepreneurs based on a series of conjoint experiments on 2,368 assessments nested in 74 evaluators. Additionally, this study examines how evaluators' beliefs in a just world moderate the relationship between stereotypes and legitimacy judgments, to contribute to a better understanding of how system inequality and prejudicial stereotypes endure. The study establishes that prejudices linked to stereotypes participate in female and immigrant failed entrepreneurs being judged less legitimate than male and native failed entrepreneurs. Moreover, while a higher education level increases the legitimacy perception of failed entrepreneurs, the effect is less for failed female entrepreneurs than for failed male entrepreneurs and less as well for failed immigrant entrepreneurs than for failed native entrepreneurs. Finally, the findings establish that evaluators who hold higher in beliefs in a just world attribute lower legitimacy to failed female entrepreneurs and to failed immigrant entrepreneurs than to failed male and failed native entrepreneurs compared to evaluators who hold lower in beliefs in a just world.