In this paper we explore the phenomenon of strategic legitimation of new ventures. We depart from two assumptions: firstly, that legitimacy is an intangible resource that affects organizations’ opportunities to establish resource exchange relations with external actors; secondly, that new ventures suffering from liabilities of newness and smallness are in particular need for this resource. Given that the entry requirements vary for resource exchange relations of different nature, we focus on legitimacy conferred by a specific audience, namely potential technology collaborators of a new venture. Looking at legitimacy as a product of social judgment, we explore in search of particular strategies new ventures could implement in order to manage the social judgment. Assuming different judgmental processes underlying cognitive and sociopolitical types of legitimacy, we therefore assume two broad veins by which legitimacy is conferred. We adopted the grounded theory approach to collect and analyze interview data from founders and executives of thirty-five small and medium enterprises operating in telecommunication industry sector in France. We discover that, first, new ventures gradually expand available variety of choices of legitimation strategies as their resources and success record accumulate. Second, there is a discernable pattern of priority among these strategies of legitimation. Third, a number of company- and network-specific variables affect the availability and choice of a specific legitimation strategy. Fourth, the strategies of legitimation applied by new ventures are each consistent with a specific social role an organization defines for itself. Overall, our findings highlight a potential for fruitful integration of social role theory into the discussion of organizational legitimacy.
