LEGITIMACY AND REPUTATION: KEY FACTORS FOR CORPORATE SOCIAL STATUS AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

This paper aims at filling a gap we think exists in scientific literature with relation to the notions of legitimacy and reputation, in order to contribute to the discussion on the current role of companies, seen both as parts of a context and as vital systems that survive thanks to their competing skills. This work is based on an effort that is both methodological and interdisciplinary, and takes into account Institutionalist and Neo-Institutionalist theories, the Viable System Approach, the Stakeholder Theory and Organizational Branding studies within the broader line of Corporate Branding. The conceptual basis of our work is the assumption that both legitimacy and reputation can become 'institutions', ie conditions useful to acquire both social status and competitive advantage, that are key factors for corporate survival. We shall try to clarify the notion that legitimacy is not, both in theory and in practice, synonymous with reputation, like many works suggest, but it is instead a condition that can support the company's social survival and the creation or the consolidation of its reputation, in turn an essential competitive factor. We think that acknowledging the substantial difference between legitimacy and reputation becomes important when carrying out governance activities and when planning segmentation and positioning strategies, which are essential to corporate marketing and communications policies referred to the different stakeholders, either social or economic ones.