Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Legitimacy theory'
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1
Brinkmann, Matthias. "A rationalist theory of legitimacy." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:6efb1b18-d901-40d3-9131-b83a4a10a642.
Full textAbstract:
In this thesis, I argue for rationalism, the claim that political legitimacy should be distributed such that justice is promoted best. In chapter 1, I define legitimacy as the permission to rule. I deny that political institutions generally enjoy authority, which is the moral power to directly impose duties on others. I then describe how legitimate political institutions without authority are possible in principle. In the second chapter, I outline a major problem for rationalism. If individuals have strong, moral rights, then it seems that political institutions cannot legitimately operate without their subjects' consent. I describe the key assumptions in this argument, and discuss a series of unconvincing proposals in the literature to escape it. In chapter 3, I argue that we can solve the problem if we look at theories of the moral justification of rights. There are two major such theories, the interest theory and the status theory. I outline the interest theory, and argue that it allows for non-consensual but legitimate political institutions. In chapter 4, I describe a Kantian claim about the nature of rights, according to which our rights are fully realised only if there are political institutions. If we accept this thought, then non-consensual political institutions can be legitimate on the status theory as well. In chapter 5, I outline what it means to promote-rather than respect-justice, and argue that the promotion of justice enjoys primacy over other values. At first sight, rationalism appears to have very radical implications, given that it asks us to base legitimacy on justice. In chapter 6, I argue that this impression is mistaken. We should often pursue justice indirectly, for example, through methods which focus on legal validity or democratic procedure rather than justice.
2
Ekstrand, David. "Reciprocity and the State : a liberal theory of legitimacy." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2012. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/2096/.
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Under which circumstances is the state morally allowed to enact and uphold laws by the use of force against its citizens? This is the problem of legitimacy. In this thesis I develop and defend a theory of legitimacy based on reciprocity. The fundamental idea is that we should aim to establish a state which can be accepted by all reasonable people. Reasonable people are those who abide by the idea of reciprocity. I defend this theory, which I call the reciprocal theory of legitimacy, against rivalling theories, and argue that reasonable people can hold incompatible ideas about legitimacy. This means that we should not expect any state to be accepted by all reasonable people, and thus to be fully legitimate. The implications of this conclusion have not been fully explored in previous work. Drawing on a distinction proposed by A. John Simmons, I claim that while the state may not be legitimate, it may still be justified, since it is better for existing states to continue to function, rather than to cease to exist. This means that the fact that the state cannot be legitimate does not mean that the state should be abolished. Instead, I argue that we should aim to maximise legitimacy by identifying and removing particularly pressing causes of illegitimacy. In the final chapter, I identify some areas where political action may increase legitimacy: public reason, political participation, welfare, and trust.
3
Fischer, Benjamin Eliazar. "Bayle's Theory of Toleration." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2011. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/philosophy_theses/92.
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This paper gives an overview of Pierre Bayle’s theory of toleration and derives a normative principle of toleration from it that is meant to compete with other normative principles of toleration such as the Harm principle.
4
Bartlett, Jennifer Lea. "Web of institutionalised legitimacy : building a model of legitimacy as a raison d'etre for public relations practice." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2007. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/16568/1/Jennifer_Lea_Bartlett_Thesis.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
This research responds to calls for the establishment of an overriding rationale, or
raison d'être, for public relations practice. Several scholars are suggesting that the
construct of legitimacy provides an overarching rationale that would link public
relations practice across organisations, industries and countries (Boyd, 2000;
Massey, 2001; Metzler, 1995, 2001; van Ruler & Vercic, 2005; Vercic, van Ruler,
Butschi, & Flodin, 2001). However, existing public relations studies using legitimacy
have focused on the communicative aspects, with little emphasis on long term and
societal level effects for organisations. In seeking to accommodate these challenges,
the central research question of this thesis is:
Does legitimacy provide a rationale for public relations practice, and if so, in
what ways?
This study draws on institutional theory, with its central imperative of
legitimacy, to address this question. Institutional theory considers the relationship
between organisations and environments from a social constructionist perspective.
Institutions created through the social construction of reality are based on shared,
rational myths of legitimacy which drive organisational and social action, and with
which organisations need to demonstrate compliance through their organisational
ceremonies or practices. These two central contributors to legitimacy -- rational
myths and ceremonies -- provide the framework guiding the study. The study was
conducted around issues about the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of the four
major Australian banks.
In order to consider relationships between public relations practice and
legitimacy as an institutional concept, Giddens' theory of structuration is used as a
theoretical apparatus to straddle the rational myths of legitimacy at the level of
institution, with public relations practice related to ceremonies at the level of action.
'Structuring moments' identified in media coverage provide sites of microanalysis
of the intense social construction of rational myths of legitimacy that include
organisations and publics. Through these theoretical devices, a number of guiding
research questions shape the study:
RQ i): What is learned about the social construction of rational myths about
legitimacy by studying media coverage about CSR in Australian banking?
RQ ii): What is learned about legitimacy by studying public relations
practices in relation to media coverage about CSR in Australia banking?
A longitudinal, qualitative, case study approach was taken to explore the
research questions in this study. As legitimacy was viewed as a process of ongoing
social construction, a temporal bracketing strategy (Langley, 1999) was used to
examine the relationships between the level of institution and of action over the six
year period of the study. Media coverage, annual and social impact reports, and
interviews were used as sources of data to examine the institutionalisation of
corporate social responsibility in the Australian banking industry.
The findings of the study show that there is a dynamic relationship between
public relations and legitimacy at both theoretical and practical levels. Through the
duality of structure lens, theoretically public relations can be conceived as agency
and legitimacy as structure. The influence of these two dynamically interrelated
levels of agency and structure is both constituted by human agency and is the
medium of the institutions (Sewell, 1992). Public relations practices, therefore, can
be seen as human agency that both shapes and is shaped by legitimacy. If legitimacy
represents a dominant concept of organisational success, it is also a rationale for
public relations practice as an act of human agency that seeks to create alignment
between organisations and publics in their environment.
As such, public relations practices are not just activities. Rather, public
relations practices constitute a central resource that organisations can access to exert
power to create and manage their legitimacy within the broader environment. Public
relations practices, therefore, are resources because they are embedded within the
deep structures of society that influence organisational practice, but also are actions
that allow the organisation to shape those structural arrangements. This process takes place within webs of communication and relationships between organisations and
publics that form institutionalised legitimacy.
This study also found that public relations practice is a balance between the
demands of time and space. The traditional focus of public relations studies has been
on incidents of compressed time and space, such as crises and campaigns. This study
suggests that expanded periods of time and space are also integral to how and why
public relations make a contribution as, over time, there were shifts to the
institutional arrangements that guide public relations practices. This suggests that
there is a compression of time and space as organisations and publics communicate
in their relationship and an expansion of time and space to shift frames of social
structures and legitimacy. It is through this juxtaposition of time and space, and
across dual levels of structure, that legitimacy provides a rationale for public
relations practices.
The conclusions of this research make a major contribution to public relations
theory by building a model for considering how legitimacy provides a raison d'être
for public relations practices. As such, the model developed in this research provides
a theoretical framework of how public relations practices contribute to organisational
legitimacy at a societal level. The study also provides deeper insights to the role of
public relations practices in managing organisational legitimacy at the level of
action. In doing so, it addresses theoretical and methodological issues of the
conflation of publics and environment.
A number of opportunities for further research are presented by this study in
understanding drivers of public relations practices and the role of inspection forums
in processes of legitimacy. For practice, there are implications of taking a longer
term perspective to considering the role of public relations practices, its impact on
organisational success and, therefore, how it is evaluated.
5
Bartlett, Jennifer Lea. "Web of institutionalised legitimacy : building a model of legitimacy as a raison d'etre for public relations practice." Queensland University of Technology, 2007. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/16568/.
Full textAbstract:
This research responds to calls for the establishment of an overriding rationale, or raison d'être, for public relations practice. Several scholars are suggesting that the construct of legitimacy provides an overarching rationale that would link public relations practice across organisations, industries and countries (Boyd, 2000; Massey, 2001; Metzler, 1995, 2001; van Ruler & Vercic, 2005; Vercic, van Ruler, Butschi, & Flodin, 2001). However, existing public relations studies using legitimacy have focused on the communicative aspects, with little emphasis on long term and societal level effects for organisations. In seeking to accommodate these challenges, the central research question of this thesis is: Does legitimacy provide a rationale for public relations practice, and if so, in what ways? This study draws on institutional theory, with its central imperative of legitimacy, to address this question. Institutional theory considers the relationship between organisations and environments from a social constructionist perspective. Institutions created through the social construction of reality are based on shared, rational myths of legitimacy which drive organisational and social action, and with which organisations need to demonstrate compliance through their organisational ceremonies or practices. These two central contributors to legitimacy -- rational myths and ceremonies -- provide the framework guiding the study. The study was conducted around issues about the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of the four major Australian banks. In order to consider relationships between public relations practice and legitimacy as an institutional concept, Giddens' theory of structuration is used as a theoretical apparatus to straddle the rational myths of legitimacy at the level of institution, with public relations practice related to ceremonies at the level of action. 'Structuring moments' identified in media coverage provide sites of microanalysis of the intense social construction of rational myths of legitimacy that include organisations and publics. Through these theoretical devices, a number of guiding research questions shape the study: RQ i): What is learned about the social construction of rational myths about legitimacy by studying media coverage about CSR in Australian banking? RQ ii): What is learned about legitimacy by studying public relations practices in relation to media coverage about CSR in Australia banking? A longitudinal, qualitative, case study approach was taken to explore the research questions in this study. As legitimacy was viewed as a process of ongoing social construction, a temporal bracketing strategy (Langley, 1999) was used to examine the relationships between the level of institution and of action over the six year period of the study. Media coverage, annual and social impact reports, and interviews were used as sources of data to examine the institutionalisation of corporate social responsibility in the Australian banking industry. The findings of the study show that there is a dynamic relationship between public relations and legitimacy at both theoretical and practical levels. Through the duality of structure lens, theoretically public relations can be conceived as agency and legitimacy as structure. The influence of these two dynamically interrelated levels of agency and structure is both constituted by human agency and is the medium of the institutions (Sewell, 1992). Public relations practices, therefore, can be seen as human agency that both shapes and is shaped by legitimacy. If legitimacy represents a dominant concept of organisational success, it is also a rationale for public relations practice as an act of human agency that seeks to create alignment between organisations and publics in their environment. As such, public relations practices are not just activities. Rather, public relations practices constitute a central resource that organisations can access to exert power to create and manage their legitimacy within the broader environment. Public relations practices, therefore, are resources because they are embedded within the deep structures of society that influence organisational practice, but also are actions that allow the organisation to shape those structural arrangements. This process takes place within webs of communication and relationships between organisations and publics that form institutionalised legitimacy. This study also found that public relations practice is a balance between the demands of time and space. The traditional focus of public relations studies has been on incidents of compressed time and space, such as crises and campaigns. This study suggests that expanded periods of time and space are also integral to how and why public relations make a contribution as, over time, there were shifts to the institutional arrangements that guide public relations practices. This suggests that there is a compression of time and space as organisations and publics communicate in their relationship and an expansion of time and space to shift frames of social structures and legitimacy. It is through this juxtaposition of time and space, and across dual levels of structure, that legitimacy provides a rationale for public relations practices. The conclusions of this research make a major contribution to public relations theory by building a model for considering how legitimacy provides a raison d'être for public relations practices. As such, the model developed in this research provides a theoretical framework of how public relations practices contribute to organisational legitimacy at a societal level. The study also provides deeper insights to the role of public relations practices in managing organisational legitimacy at the level of action. In doing so, it addresses theoretical and methodological issues of the conflation of publics and environment. A number of opportunities for further research are presented by this study in understanding drivers of public relations practices and the role of inspection forums in processes of legitimacy. For practice, there are implications of taking a longer term perspective to considering the role of public relations practices, its impact on organisational success and, therefore, how it is evaluated.
6
Boyle, Martin. "Towards justice and validity, an investigation into Habermas' theory of legitimacy." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/MQ57699.pdf.
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7
Bitektine, Alexandre B. "Legitimacy properties and their implications for institutional theory and strategic management." Thesis, McGill University, 2008. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=115624.
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This doctoral thesis seeks to advance our understanding of organizational legitimacy through the analysis of types and properties of legitimacy and of its relation to the concepts of status and reputation. More specifically, this doctoral thesis seeks to contribute to organizational theory and strategic management by (1) reviewing and systematizing legitimacy types discerned in the literature and contrasting legitimacy with related concepts of reputation and status, (2) identifying the properties of legitimacy, and (3) exploring some of the implications of these properties for management practice and strategic management research.The doctoral research is presented in the form of a manuscript-based thesis consisting of three interrelated papers:
1. Organizational Legitimacy as a Form of Judgment. Through the analysis of legitimacy definitions, types and typologies, and operationalizations, this study first develops an enumerative definition of organizational legitimacy, maps different types of legitimacy discerned in the literature onto the process of legitimacy judgment formation and highlights the fundamental differences between cognitive and sociopolitical legitimacy types. This paper then advances a conceptualization of cognitive and sociopolitical types of legitimacy, reputation and status as four different types of judgment that actors can render in respect to an organization and explores some implications of this approach for organizational research, namely the role of social judgments in exchange partner selection and the use of social judgments under conditions of uncertainty.
2. Legitimacy-Based Entry Deterrence in Inter-Population Competition. This paper develops a theory of competitive social norm manipulations and explores the strategies that well-established organizational populations use to build legitimacy-based barriers to entry into their domain. The study develops a typology of legitimacy manipulation strategies that established organizational populations use to prevent, eradicate or palliate the new entrants' impact by: (1) changing the relative importance of legitimacy dimensions, (2) raising the legitimacy threshold and (3) altering perceptions of competitors' performance. Successful legitimacy manipulations are shown to lead to institutional immunization of the incumbents against similar competitive challenges in the future.
3. Defensive Institutional Strategies in Emergent Industries. Through a comparative analysis of two emergent industries in Canada, this study advances a conceptualization of the process of emergence of a new industry from a successful innovative business model, focusing on sequential lines of institutional defense that are available to emergent industries that come under such attacks: (1) keep a low profile; (2) form a trade association; (3) develop an industry code to provide guidelines and member coordination; (4) enforce the code through self-policing; (5) if everything else fails to end the attack, invite the government to impose regulation. Illustrations of the application of these strategies are provided.
8
Buys, Pieter Willem. "The legitimacy predicament of current day accounting theory / Pieter Willem Buys." Thesis, North-West University, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/4578.
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Recent corporate reporting history is well–known for its corporate failures and
questionable accountancy practices, many of which caused the profession to be
frowned upon. However, the splodge on the accounting profession?s reputation
goes deeper than its corporate reporting failures. The scientific foundation
thereof is also being questioned in academic circles. Even though accounting
scholars have been trying to formulate foundational accounting theories, it has
been the accounting regulators that have been more successful in promoting
their versions of what accounting theory should be, which place a question
mark on the legitimacy of current day accounting theory. This thesis aims to
delve deeper into the foundational philosophies of accounting and its impact on
the practice of accounting.
With the current accounting globalisation efforts, the profession?s stewardship
function is becoming less prominent in its promulgated standards, which in
turn brings the focus on the many questionable ethical practices found in the
profession. Even though the regulatory bodies require their members to commit
themselves to professional codes of conduct, which entails competency,
integrity, objectivity and confidentiality, the 1st article in this thesis claims that
ethical conduct is more than mere adherence to rules and regulations. It is also
about the image of not only the profession, but also accounting research and
education.
Accounting is broadly practised, researched and taught within its so–called
conceptual framework, of which a key objective is to guide and inform accounting practice. The conceptual framework became the basis upon which
accounting theory is based. However, many accounting scholars are openly
critical of presenting accounting theory as a set of practical guidelines. The 2nd
article in the thesis concludes that, from an academic perspective, accounting
theory should be based on three quintessential guidelines. The first of which is
its primary purpose of reporting on the historic economic events, secondly the
provision of useable and comparable information about these events and finally,
the facilitation of business decisions based on relevant and reliable information.
In the above mentioned business decisions, the concept of value is often taken
for granted and many accounting techniques? effectiveness is judged on how
well it approximates an item?s value. The 3rd article argues that the multiple
purposes for which accounting information is used complicates the issue of
value, as reported by accounting. Two key conflicting valuation perspectives are
the so–called decision–usefulness and true income perspectives. The current
drive towards fair value accounting, as opposed to historic cost accounting, cast
doubts on the reliability and relevance of accounting information. Even though
it may be argued that value–based techniques are more relevant because it is a
better reflection of the current business conditions, the mere subjective nature
thereof and the accountant?s objective valuation skills make the true relevance
of this information questionable. Furthermore, mixed model valuations found in
financial statements makes cross–company information unreliable.
Accountancy research of the past four decades focussed on the concept of user
decision–usefulness. The user is also pre–eminent in the globalisation of
accounting standards of the FASB and the IASB, where users are specified as
the equity investors, lenders and capital providers. The 4th article acknowledges
that although these user categories are important consumers of the financial
data, there are other users which are also impacted by the financial information
and the company?s operational performances. There are also concerns over
accounting?s key assumptions, such as its quantification and predictive
abilities, which are fundamental to the decision–usefulness objective.
Furthermore, there are questions around how the regulators decided what
information is suppose to be useful and what type of utility is being sought. In summary, the focus on the vocational aspects of accountancy stands in
contrast to claims of accounting as an academic discipline in the social
sciences. The reality is that the practices of the profession will probably always
play a central role in what is taught at university level, and the regulators, as
the final authority on accounting standards, will probably remain dictatorial in
promulgating their versions of accounting theory. Yet, accounting and its wide
spread impact on society, makes it a key discipline within the economical and
management sciences. It is therefore essential for the resurrection of accounting
as a social scientific discipline that there is a return to foundational accounting
research that will prepare (and enable) prospective practitioners and academics
to question the status quo and push back on accounting practices that are
threatening to extinguish the flame of accounting scholarship.Thesis (Ph.D. (Accounting))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.
9
Assad, Mussa Juma. "Accounting in non-governmental organisations : towards a theory of navigating legitimacy." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.390587.
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Griffith, Kevin. "Corporate social reporting in South Africa : a test of legitimacy theory." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/5634.
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Boyle, Martin (Martin Brian Damien) Carleton University Dissertation Law. "Towards justice and validity: an investigation into Habermas' theory of legitimacy." Ottawa, 2000.
Find full text
12
Aloini, Sabrina. "Una indagine esplorativa sul reporting behaviours dei comuni italiani : tra legitmacy theory e contingency theory." Thesis, Università degli Studi di Catania, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10761/289.
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l'obiettivo principale del presente lavoro non e' definire le caratteristiche del fenomeno del social and enviromental reporting quanto individuare se esistono e quali siano i fattori che influenzano e determinano il contenuto dei report negli enti locali italiani e se il fenomeno del social and enviromental reporting possa essere legato a determinati fattori di performance dimensionali o di contesto. L' indagine ha valenza esplorativa (gli scopi principali di questo tipo di ricerca nella formulazione ipotesi generali riguardo la relazione fra piu' variabili) e comprende lo studio di una regressione stepwise; i risultati delle analisi da un punto di vista generale ci inducono ad affermare che non e' possibile individuare un unico set di fattori o un'unica teoria di riferimento, e' vero, pero', che la contingency theory riesce a spiegare maggiormente i reporting behaviours degli enti locali, si puo' quindi affermare che le due teorie non possono essere utilizzate in maniera esclusiva ma come due approcci complementari allo studio di uno stesso fenomeno.
13
Ates, Davut. "Political Legitimacy Of Nation State :shifts Within The Global Context." Phd thesis, METU, 2004. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12605009/index.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
The thesis investigates the basis of possible sources of shifts in the classical
conceptualizations of political legitimacy of nation state as a result of the impositions of
globalization. To this end, it first suggested that we should have a theory of globalization.
Globalization in the fields of economy, politics, society, culture and identity along with
fragmentation provides crucial changes in the roles and functions of the state, which result
in fundamental transformation in the distinctive features of nation state, such as autonomy,
capacity, unity, territoriality, sovereignty and identity. The depreciation in the classical roles
and functions of nation state is observed in its decreasing capacity to cope with emerging
global threats, such as environmental pollution, unequal development and international
crimes. Economic globalization deprives nation state of its autonomy in determining its own
economic policies. And identity/culture assertions of the locality disintegrate the unity and
identity of nation state. Decreasing autonomy, capacity and unity lead to further
depreciation in other two fundamental features of nation state, which are territoriality and
sovereignty. These developments force nation state to find out new ways of legitimizing its
position under the global context. In classical conceptions, political legitimacy of nation
state had been constructed within the framework of the premises of its autonomy,
sovereignty, territoriality, unity, identity and capacity. However, those fundamental
characteristics of nation state seem to be depreciating under the global context. Actually,
this depreciation will result in a new conceptualization of political legitimacy under
globalization. Therefore, in this re-conceptualization of political legitimacy, individual,
local and global impositions emerge as major sources. Nation state, which is eager to resituate
itself in a legitimate basis in the twenty first century, should take into account
emerging individual, local and global concerns.
14
Simpson, Gerry J. "The right of succession in international law : a new theory of legitimacy." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/27369.
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Secession is the process by which a territorially discrete entity within a state achieves independence from that state. In this thesis a code of legality is devised which legitimizes secession in certain cases without advocating the breakdown of world order.
The right of secession envisaged derives its force not from political concepts such as democracy, liberalism or socialism, but from the right in international law to self-determination. To this end, an historical introduction is offered which traces the historical roots of the right to self-determination and its earliest connection with secession. This study illustrates how the transformation of self-determination from political principle to legal right in the era of the United Nations and decolonization led to a restrictive interpretation of the concept. This interpretation, it is argued, has neglected the link between self-determination, human rights and the right to secede. Self-determination has consequently been drained of significance at the very moment when it should be in the vanguard of the quest for a world order based on respect for human rights.
This study, therefore, has several purposes. First, a basis in international law for a right of secession is sought by analyzing the provisions of several United Nations Declarations on self-determination. Second, the humanitarian potential of the right of secession is realized by renewing the link between human rights and self-determination in a novel theory of legitimacy. Third, an index of validity is outlined by which the legitimacy of a particular secession can be ascertained using criteria which take into account political, economic and moral as well as legal factors. This index is referred to throughout the paper in five case studies which illustrate the varying practical consequences of applying this theory of legitimacy. In this way, a theory of secession is proposed which subscribes to the rules of international law and the realities of the international political system while providing a conceptual foundation for a humane world order.Law, Peter A. Allard School of
Graduate
15
Zhu, Jiafeng, and 朱佳峰. "Farewell to political obligation : toward a new liberal theory of political legitimacy." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10722/196492.
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Is there a general moral duty to obey the law because it is the law? This is the question of political obligation. The issue of political obligation is allegedly a central topic of political philosophy, because political obligation is often assumed to be necessary for state legitimacy; that is to say, for a state to be legitimate, it must be capable of imposing political obligation on the governed. Nonetheless, the literature has indicated that it is enormously difficult, at least within the liberal doctrine that many find most attractive, to justify political obligation. Given that political obligation is viewed as an indispensable part of state legitimacy, skepticism about political obligation points to a seemingly inescapable yet disturbing conclusion: no existing liberal state is legitimate, no matter how just it is. This skeptical position is also known as philosophical anarchism.
This study aims to show that philosophical anarchism is not as irresistible as it appears. But I do not take the traditional approach of refuting philosophical anarchism by defending or developing theories of political obligation. On the contrary, I devote the first part of my thesis to consolidating the skepticism about political obligation.
The approach I favor is to argue that political obligation is not necessary for state legitimacy. If this point can be established, then even if political obligation is unjustified, it will not automatically lead to philosophical anarchism. This constitutes the second part of my thesis, where I develop a conception of “legitimacy without political obligation” and defend it against the objection that it is either conceptually or morally wrong to claim that a legitimate state need not impose political obligation on its subjects.published_or_final_version
Politics and Public Administration
Doctoral
Doctor of Philosophy
16
Van-Rooyen, David Patrick. "The legitimacy of international law : re-examining the theory of state consent." Thesis, Durham University, 2019. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/12934/.
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With the post-WWII acceleration of globalisation and the proliferation of transnational concerns (such as nuclear armament, financial instability, climate change, the spread of diseases etc.), there has been a concomitant increase in international laws and institutions designed to regulate this activity and facilitate international cooperation. This widening and deepening of international law brings to the fore normative concerns about how and from where international law derives its legitimacy. Indeed, international legal institutions have been suffering a 'crisis of legitimacy' in recent years: from the 1999 'Battle of Seattle' to Brexit. This thesis aims to contribute to the philosophical literature on the political legitimacy of international law. In particular, it seeks to morally evaluate the traditional theory of international legal legitimation: 'state consent'. After conducting an in-depth conceptual analysis of three key concepts (international law, political legitimacy, and state consent), the thesis will consider six arguments against the proposition that state consent is either sufficient or necessary for the legitimacy of international law. I conclude that state consent is not 'sufficient' as - to properly legitimate international law - state consent would need to fulfil the additional necessary requirement of being 'authorised' by the individuals within the state; arguably through a process of deliberative democratic decision-making. I also conclude, however, that state consent may be 'necessary' for the legitimacy of a certain category of international law; namely, the international law of 'cooperation' (as opposed to 'coexistence'). The thesis ends by tentatively suggesting proposals for how international law may increase its claim to legitimacy under the existing state-consent model: first, by incentivising a process of internal democratisation, and second, by establishing an international 'harm principle' that better protects third-parties from indirect harm.
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Yong, Caleb Hoe-Kit. "Justice, legitimacy, and movement across borders : a political theory of international migration." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:7f94a135-778d-45cd-acdf-e5e15adba7f1.
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Existing moral reflection on immigration law and policy is caught in an impasse between (1) proponents of an individual right to free international migration and (2) proponents of a state’s right to control its borders. In Chapter 1, I examine arguments supporting an individual right to free international migration. I show that the case for this putative right cannot be settled solely by considering the strength of individuals’ interest in being able to cross international borders according to their choice. Rather, at a crucial point, the argument for an individual right to free migration turns on the truth of a particular conception of global justice. In Chapter 2, I examine arguments supporting a state’s right to control its borders. I contend that these arguments do not seek to defend the substantive justice of restrictive immigration policies, but rather the legitimacy of processes of political decision-making by which states unilaterally determine their own immigration policies. Abandoning this right-versus-right paradigm, I recast the debate by focusing on two distinct questions: (1) the question of justice in immigration, which substantively evaluates immigrant admission policy; and (2) the question of the legitimacy of immigration law enacted by procedures responsive only to states’ internal political decisions. I further propose that in articulating principles of justice in immigration, we should first develop a conception of global justice which will provide the background for our evaluation of immigration policy. In Chapter 3, I develop and defend a conception of global justice I call cooperation-based internationalism. I argue that co-citizens are joint participants in a scheme of cooperation which provides them with the social goods they need to lead autonomous lives. They therefore owe each other special duties of social justice. In addition, I argue for a duty of assistance which applies among all human persons globally. This duty requires developed states to assist developing states in establishing minimally just institutions. In Chapter 4, I develop a conception of justice in immigration against the background of cooperation-based internationalism. I argue that there is no requirement for states to allow open immigration. Nevertheless, I argue that co-citizens owe each other duties which impose significant moral constraints on immigration policy: states must (1) allow for family unification; (2) eschew policies that select immigrants based on criteria that unjustly call into question the fitness for citizenship of certain current members; (3) regulate labour immigration so that all current citizens benefit equally unless unequal gains benefit worse-off citizens. The duty of assistance is also imposes constraints on immigration policy. Developed states should (4) avoid immigration policies which cause brain drain harmful to international development and (5) admit and resettle refugees. In Chapter 5, I turn to the distinct question of the legitimacy of unilaterally-enacted immigration law. I argue that the application and enforcement of immigration law counts as a coercive exercise of political power which stands in need of justification. I examine the consent and natural duty of justice theories of political legitimacy, concluding that these influential theories cannot establish the legitimacy of immigration law. I conclude by considering the implications of the illegitimacy of immigration law for the evaluation of irregular migration.
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Liss, Arvid, and Martin Wärefors. "Global Best Practice Transfer : The strive for Legitimacy." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-355631.
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The research topic for this thesis is the transfer of best practice from a MNC to a subsidiary during the pre-implementation phase of an ERP system. A lot is written about best practice transfer but there is a call for more research on how the implementation is perceived from a subsidiary perspective. This study wishes to contribute to the literature in the intersection between knowledge transfer and legitimacy within MNCs. In order to do so, this thesis was conducted through a qualitative case study and data was mainly collected through semi-structured interviews. Based on the literature review five factors were identified that can affect the best practice transfer Furthermore, the potential effect of legitimacy related to the knowledge transfer was investigated. The thesis resulted in the classification of indirect and direct factors that affect the transfer of best practices in an MNC and their impact on knowledge implementation and the increase of internal legitimacy for a subsidiary. Moreover, a relationship between knowledge and legitimacy was observed. An interesting finding that calls for more research was the facilitating effects of internal audits on the knowledge transfer.
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Blackestam, Andreas, and Anton Olofsson. "Environmental certification - why do companies seek it? : A comparative case study of ISO 14001 certified companies in Umeå." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-76443.
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In modern times environmental matters have increased in importance and are being discussed more frequently, and especially in relation with company activity. One way of complying with modern standards for companies is to work with environmental management systems, and it has become quite normal for companies to certify their environmental management systems to a recognized environmental certification. Continuing on this, the purpose of our thesis is to gain a deeper understanding regarding and ultimately assess why it is that companies seek environmental certification. Additionally, we have developed a sub-purpose which is designed to help us gain a deeper understanding regarding the main purpose in a practical context. We will look at 5 production companies in Umeå that have implemented an environmental certification, specifically ISO 14001, and try to understand the reasoning behind choosing to become certified. We will also examine the environmental effectiveness of an ISO 14001 certified environmental management system. We have conducted a comparative case study with these 5 companies in Umeå. Our method of collecting primary data was to interview the companies with a qualitative semi-structured interviewing technique. In the empirical part of the thesis we focused on practically testing the theoretical material. Furthermore, we also analyzed secondary data received from the companies' websites and directly from the interviewees in order to assess the effectiveness of an ISO 14001 certified environmental management system in financial and environmental terms. Regarding the theoretical framework, we focus on two theories referred to as the legitimacy theory and the stakeholder theory, and these theories are used to explain organizational behavior. We also have theoretical material explaining the positives and negatives of environmental management systems, and also ISO 14001 certification and the reasons why companies can benefit from such certification. Our findings suggest that the matter of legitimacy, in combination with the stakeholder theory, affected all of the companies in one way or another when choosing to seek environmental certification. In what ways the companies were affected differed even though there were many similarities across the companies regarding their reasoning to become ISO 14001 certified. We also found that, despite collecting a lot of hard data illustrating the companies' environmental performance over recent years, it was difficult to directly link any improvements to ISO 14001. It was, however, stated that ISO 14001 certification for the environmental management systems did improve the overall quality and environmental focus and performance, but it is still difficult to assess this with much accuracy and certainty due to many contributing factors.
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Karlsson, Michaela, and Anja Dreier. "Rapportera för att överleva? : Hållbarhetsrapporten ur ett legitimitets-perspektiv." Thesis, Högskolan i Borås, Akademin för textil, teknik och ekonomi, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-550.
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Att leva upp till intressenters krav och förväntningar anses nödvändigt för att organisationer ska kunna bedriva sin verksamhet. Det tillstånd som råder när företagets värdesystem är i linje med samhällets kallas legitimitet och processen som leder till att en organisation bedöms som legitim kallas legitimering. Förväntningar och krav från intressenter förändras ständigt och under de senaste åren har intressenters ökade förståelse för bland annat miljöproblem, lett till en större medvetenhet om arbetet inom hållbar utveckling. Detta har bidragit till en press på organisationer och företag vad gäller deras ansvar och skyldigheter att rapportera kring deras påverkan på dessa områden. Pressen har resulterat i att de flesta större företag producerar årliga hållbarhetsrapporter och då det saknas lagar och regler för hur dessa rapporter ska se ut använder sig företag av frivilliga principer och riktlinjer vid framtagandet av rapporten.Syftet med studien är att öka förståelsen för hur legitimitetsteorin kan förklara motiven till att upprätta en hållbarhetsrapport, samt fördjupa diskussionen kring hur innehållet i rapporten används som ett legitimeringsverktyg. Forskningsfrågan som besvaras är hur legitimitets-teorin kan förklara en hållbarhetsrapports motiv och innehåll och för att uppfylla syftet har en kvalitativ studie genomförts och ett hermeneutiskt perspektiv har tillämpats. I studien genomfördes sju stycken semistrukturerade intervjuer. Urvalet begränsades till fyra hållbarhetschefer och tre hållbarhetskonsulter. Empirin bygger dels på information som intervjuerna genererat, och dels på information hämtad från organisationen GRI.Under studien framkom flera motiv till en hållbarhetsrapports upprättande, och flera faktorer som påverkar en hållbarhetsrapports innehåll identifierades. Det faktum att intressenterna har fått en större påverkan över innehållet var tydligt, vilket flera forskare skulle beskriva som en mognad i rapporteringsprocessen. Detta betyder dock inte att det är en problembefriad process, utan svårigheten i att inkludera och prioritera ”rätt” information verkar kvarstå enligt flera av våra respondenter. Vidare visade resultatet på att innehållet speglas av en önskan om att organisationen ska fortsätta att vara legitim, och att rapporten även används som ett verktyg för att reparera skadad legitimitet. Ett primärt fokus på att rapportera om det som är av störst väsentlighet innebär enligt några respondenter en större valfrihet över vad som ska rapporteras. Andra respondenter menar att företag nu inte kan undvika att vara transparenta om känslig information. Legitimitetsteorin kan även förklara valet att utelämna känslig information, då det vid ett offentliggörande finns en risk att legitimiteten kan hotas. Det finns med andra ord ett dilemma som innebär att företag måste vara transparanta för att ha möjlighet att erhålla eller bibehålla legitimitet, samtidigt som transparensen i sig kan leda till en legitimitetskris.The ability to live up to stakeholders’ requirements and expectations is considered a necessity for organizations in order to manage their business. The condition that exists when the company's value system is in line with the society’s value system is called legitimacy, and the process leading to an organization being deemed as legitimate is called legitimation. Expectations and demands of stakeholders are constantly changing, and stakeholders' increased understanding of e.g. environmental problems has led to a greater awareness of sustainable development in organizations. This has contributed to a pressure on organizations and companies regarding their responsibilities and obligations to report on their impact in these areas. The pressure has resulted in annual sustainability reports from companies of a greater size. In the absence of laws and regulations for how these reports should be prepared, companies use voluntary principles and guidelines when developing the report.The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of how legitimacy theory can explain the motives for establishing a sustainability report, and to deepen the discussion of how the content of the report is being used as a legitimization tool. The research question to be answered is how legitimacy theory can explain a sustainability report's incentives and content and to fulfill the purpose of the study, a qualitative method was carried out and a hermeneutic perspective was applied. Seven semi-structured interviews were conducted and four sustainability managers and three sustainability consultants took part. The empirical data were based on the information generated from the interviews and on the information obtained from the GRI-organization.The study revealed numerous reasons for a sustainability report's existence, and several factors affecting the sustainability report's contents were identified. The fact that stakeholders have a major influence over the content was clear, and several scientists would describe this as a maturity in the reporting process. However, this does not mean that this is a process without difficulties or problems, and troubles to select and prioritize the 'right' information remain. Furthermore, the results showed that the content is mirrored by a desire for the organization to continue to be legitimate, and that the report is also being used as a tool to repair damaged legitimacy. A primary focus on reporting on what is of greatest materiality means according to some respondents a greater choice of what to report. Other respondents believe that this will force companies to be transparent of sensitive information. Legitimacy theory provides an explanation for the choice to exclude sensitive information, since publication of negative information can endanger the perception of the company and the legitimacy can be threatened. In other words, there is a dilemma which means that companies[III]must be transparent in order to obtain or maintain legitimacy, while transparency in itself can lead to a crisis of legitimacy.This thesis is written in Swedish.
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Muderrisoglu, Mehmet. "The Recent Debate On The Democratic Legitimacy Of Judicial Review: Constitutionality Vs. Popular Sovereignty." Master's thesis, METU, 2007. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/3/12608724/index.pdf.
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The term 'Costitutional Democracy'
is characterized by an underlying conceptual tension between the rule of law and populSar sovereignty. This is reflected in the controversy surrounding the judicial review of legislation in contemporary political systems. In this thesis, the development of the idea of '
governmernt under law'
in political thought, contemporary debates on the doctrine of judicial review and normative relation between law and politics is analyzed. It is concluded that both '
constitutionality'
and '
popular sovereignty'
are essentil to modern democracy. Yet, it might be problematic to disassociate constitutional law from ordinary politics, since the latter is the principal means through which a polity shapes its future.
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Tyllström, Anna. "Legitimacy for Sale : Constructing a Market for PR Consultancy." Doctoral thesis, Uppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-198847.
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Categories are semantic objects that create order in markets. By categorization, market actors and products become comparable and understandable to various audiences. This thesis examines the construction of the product category of public relations (PR) consultancy in Sweden; a market that has arisen, become economically successful and gained recognition over the past thirty years, but which still lacks the legitimacy and clarity normally thought of as basic criteria of market categories. Using a semiotic framework and a mixed-method approach, I explore category construction 1) over time, and 2) in practice. In generalized terms, my findings suggest that market categorization processes cannot be understood without taking into account the characteristics of the product being categorized. Whereas ambiguity around labels, denotations and connotations is normally regarded as incompatible with categorization, such fuzziness should be expected to be intrinsic in markets for professional service products like PR consultancy, where the product itself is often thriving on, as well as continuously creating, ambiguity. For instance, the lack of clarity and lack of legitimacy in the Swedish PR consultancy market are found to be both logical outcomes, and enablers, of visibilization and amalgamation, referring to PR consultants’ conscientious management of visibility, and tendency to span boundaries in constructing their services, respectively. Categorization in the traditional sense is further hampered by the dominant label of “PR consultancy” being stigmatized, i.e. suffering from “sticky” negative connotations. In the cultural context of Sweden, the emergence of a PR consultancy market has al-so meant commodification, i.e. the introduction of something hitherto not sold into a sphere of exchangeable things. In this process, PR consultancy seems to have gotten “stuck” between the sphere of salable and unsalable things, as the product is widely sold but continues to be contested across various audiences. Again, my analysis puts this difficulty of PR consultancy finding legitimacy in relation to the product category’s actual content, i.e. rendering legitimacy to others. Finally, I argue that the emergence of PR consultancy, by providing a market place for corporate legitimacy, might be under-stood as a case of a cognitive-cultural market logic on the rise, characterized by struggles for organizational visibility and semiotic sophistication.
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Shokri, Mehdi [Verfasser]. "A Theory of Political Power and Rights : A Secret Exchange for Legitimacy / Mehdi Shokri." Berlin : Freie Universität Berlin, 2018. http://d-nb.info/1176708295/34.
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Danarp, Martin, and Anas Ramish. "Sustainability reports - Legitimizing negative aspects : A qualitative study on the Swedish steel industry." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-160729.
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Problem: Legitimacy is a resource that organizations depend on for their survival. According to legitimacy theory companies need to make sure that they are recognized as operating within the bounds and norms of society and sustainability reports is a way for companies to communicate this. Due to an addition to the Swedish annual accounting law in 2016, large companies are required to produce a sustainability report and to report the consequences that the company operations has on the environment, social conditions, employees, respect for human rights and counteracting corruption. Because companies are required to disclose these negative aspects, they need to do it strategically to not damage their legitimacy. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand how Swedish companies in the steel industry legitimize negative aspects of their operations in sustainability reports and to understand if there is a pattern between the type of negative aspect disclosed and the type of legitimation strategy used. Method: To achieve the purpose of our study, a qualitative method has been used. A multiple case-study with a document analysis has been conducted on the sustainability reports of Sandvik, SSAB, Boliden, LKAB and Outokumpu for year 2018. To conduct this study, legitimacy theory and Hahn & Lülfs (2014) legitimation strategies have been essential to fulfill the purpose. Results: Swedish companies in the steel industry use Hahn & Lülfs (2014) legitimation strategies and our new identified legitimation strategy, balancing, to legitimize negative aspects in their sustainability reports. We found four clear patterns between the type of negative aspect reported and the strategy used to legitimize the aspect. Conclusion: Our findings confirm that Hahn & Lülfs (2014) strategies to explain how companies legitimize negative aspects in sustainability reports are also applicable to the Swedish steel industry. The contribution to previous research on this topic is the new additional strategy that is used by the analyzed companies.
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Nell, Phillip C., Jonas Puck, and Stefan Heidenreich. "Strictly Limited Choice or Agency? Institutional Duality, Legitimacy, and Subsidiaries' Political Strategies." Elsevier, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2014.10.007.
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This article analyzes political strategies of MNC subsidiaries in emerging markets. We find that institutional pressures from public and private non-market actors in the emerging market lead to increased political activism. Furthermore, we find that these relationships become stronger, when the external pressures are joined by strong firm-internal pressures. Our findings contribute to the scarce literature on firms' political strategies in emerging markets. They also support recent criticism of institutional theory's strong focus on isomorphism as the most important legitimacy-conveying mechanism. We argue that the isomorphism-based either-or logic gives way to stronger agency of the subsidiary and to a logic of active negotiation and social construction of the subsidiary's legitimacy in the emerging market. Our findings show support for this idea as political activism is one such way how the subsidiary's legitimacy can be built and nurtured.
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Devin, Bree L. "CSR communication and legitimacy : an institutional and rhetorical perspective." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2014. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/68699/1/Bree_Devin_Thesis.pdf.
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This study drew on the notions of institutional theory, legitimacy, and rhetoric, and explored propositions drawn from these concepts to consider the why and how of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication. In doing so, this thesis found that there was often a disconnect between why the organisations were communicating about CSR activities in their reports and how the organisations were communicating about these activities.
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Prost, Emilien. "Legitimacy and incentives in a hierarchical relationship." Thesis, Université de Lorraine, 2019. http://www.theses.fr/2019LORR0121.
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L’objet général de notre thèse est, d’une part, d’étudier l’influence de la légitimité du manager sur la motivation de son employé à l’effort et, d’autre part, d’analyser la manière dont le manager intègre cette influence potentielle dans ses comportements, et ce afin de renforcer son autorité. Enfin, nous nous intéressons aux stratégies que la firme peut mettre en place pour renforcer la légitimité de ses dirigeants en choisissant parmi plusieurs procédures de sélection des dirigeants. Notre approche est à la fois théorique, en nous appuyant sur la théorie des jeux, et empirique en utilisant l’économie expérimentale. Tout d’abord, nous définissons une légitimité procédurale qui consiste a considérer un dirigeant légitime si il a été promu à l'issue d'une compétition sans favoritisme. Ensuite nous définissons une légitimité méritocratique qui est acquise s’il maitrise les taches de son employé. Enfin, nous définissons une légitimité aristocratique qui est la compétence d’un individu à maitriser des taches de direction.Dans un premier chapitre, nous montrons que l’effort du futur dirigeant pendant la compétition n’est pas forcément un bon moyen de renforcer une légitimité procédurale car une très forte performance peut justement trahir le fait d’avoir bénéficié d’un avantage. Par ailleurs nous montrons que le perdant de la compétition sera toujours un « mauvais perdant » car sa croyance sur le fait qu’il ait été défavorisé pendant la compétition sera toujours renforcée. L’enjeu pour la firme est alors de déléguer à une entité externe la gestion de la sélection des dirigeants pour que tout traitement inéquitable présupposé pendant la compétition n’apporte aucune information concernant un potentiel traitement inéquitable à l’avenir. Dans un deuxième chapitre, nous montrons que sélectionner sur les compétences de direction permet d’augmenter le salaire des dirigeants quand bien même ces compétences sont moins difficiles à maitriser. La raison en est que cela neutralise les problèmes de rivalité entre employés et dirigeant et préserve ainsi la confiance en lui de celui qui a échoué à être promu (le rendant ainsi moins couteux à motiver). Le troisième chapitre est quant à lui un travail expérimental qui montrer qu’une procédure méritocratique incite les perdants du tournoi à demander une rémunération plus grande pour compenser leur découragement suite à leur échecThe general purpose of our thesis is, on the one hand, to study the influence of legitimacy of the manager on the motivation of his employee to exert effort and, on the other hand, to analyze how the manager integrates this potential influence into his behavior in order to bolster his authority. Finally, we are interested in strategies that the firm can design to bolster the legitimacy of its managers by choosing between several procedures of selection. Our approach is both theoretical, based on game theory, and empirical using experimental economics.First, we define a procedural legitimacy that consists in considering an executive as legitimate if he was promoted through a competition with no unfair treatment. Then, we define a meritocratic legitimacy that is the ability to master the operational task exerted by the employee. Finally, we define an aristocratic legitimacy, which is the ability of an individual to master managerial tasks.In a first chapter, we show that the future leader's effort during the competition is not necessarily a good way to bolster a procedural legitimacy because a very strong performance can just betray the fact that he has benefited from an advantage. Moreover, we show that the loser of the competition will always be a "bad loser" because his belief that he was disadvantaged during the competition will always be reinforced if he behaves with Bayesian rationality. The stake for the firm is then to delegate to an external entity the management of the selection of leaders to ensure that any unfair treatment presupposed during the competition does not provide any information regarding a potential unfair treatment in the future. In a second chapter, we show that to select on managerial abilities allows to increase the salary of executives even though these skills are less difficult to master. The reason is that it neutralizes the problems of rivalry between employees and executives and thus preserves the self-confidence of the one who has failed to be promoted (thus making it less costly to incentivize). The third chapter is an experimental work that aims to show that a meritocratic procedure incites the losers to actually ask for higher wage to compensate their discouragements following their failure
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Mzenzi, Siasa. "Accounting practices in the Tanzanian Local Government Authorities (LGAs): the grounded theory of manipulating legitimacy." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2013. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/348343/.
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This research investigates accounting practices in four Tanzanian Local Government Authorities (LGAs). It seeks to understand how accounting is practiced and the situations which sustain its undertaking. The peculiar role of local governments in the delivery of public services and the influence of accounting on the same has motivated this study (Lapsley & Mussari, 2008). It has also been driven by the inadequacy of interpretive theoretically based informed studies into public sector entities, and the limited accounting research in the emerging economies (Goddard, 2010). The study applies an interpretive approach to investigate accounting in the organisations in which it operates (Ahrens & Mollona, 2007), and executes a grounded theory method to develop a theory systematically from the raw data (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). In order to ensure the general application of the emergent theory beyond the case studies, the development of a formal grounded theory was sought. This research revealed that the operations of the Tanzanian LGAs were constrained by factors such as deficient regulatory systems, political interference, donors’ influences, and funding uncertainties. These conditions forced the technocrats to use important accounting practices, such as budgeting, auditing, financial reporting, and performance measurement to manipulate the organisational legitimacy. The process of legitimacy manipulation ensured the availability of resources for the LGAs and the attainment of the individual interests of the Councils’ officials. This study contributes to the interpretive approach in emerging economies. Also, meta-coding, intra-relationships of categories, and development of formal grounded theory, add new insights to the grounded theory analysis. It is also worth noting that the study integrates the emergent theory within the New Institutional Sociology (NIS) framework. It was not intended to test NIS, but rather, to adopt it as a theoretical lens that assisted interpretation of the research findings. In the NIS framework, the study establishes the simultaneous achievement of legitimacy and efficiency, recognises multiple sources of loose coupling, and the influence of performance management on shaping accounting practices in the public sector organisations. It also offers the micro reactions of the Councils’ officials, and recognises the different patterns of the officials’ responses across Councils and service deliveries. The study argues that in emerging economies considerations of a country’s local contexts has the potential to minimise any counter-productivity of reform programs. Moreover, this research appeals for a holistic approach to the reform programs, harmonization of laws and regulations, the institution of efficient financial management and reporting mechanisms, and the improvement of employee welfare in the Tanzanian Councils.
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Theuns, Tom. "The legitimacy of EU democracy promotion in the neighbourhood." Thesis, Paris, Institut d'études politiques, 2017. http://www.theses.fr/2017IEPP0023.
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Cette thèse doctorale porte sur la promotion de la démocratie par l’Union Européenne (UE) dans ce qui est défini comme son ‘voisinage’, selon le point de vue de la théorie politique normative. A cet effet, ces travaux théorisent les fondations philosophiques de la valeur de la démocratie (chapitre 1), décrivent les activités de promotion de la démocratie par l’UE dans son voisinage (chapitre 2), développent une théorie normative générale de la promotion de la démocratie (chapitre 3), l’appliquent à la promotion de la démocratie par l’UE (chapitre 4) et confrontent cette promotion de la démocratie par l’UE à leur propres standards normatifs (chapitre 5)This dissertation examines EU democracy promotion in what it defines as its ‘neighbourhood’ from the perspective of normative political theory. To that end, it theorises the philosophical foundations of the value of democracy (chapter one); describes the substance of EU democracy promotion in the neighbourhood (chapter two); develops a general normative theory of democracy promotion (chapter three); applies this to EU democracy promotion (chapter four); and tests EU democracy promotion to its own normative standards (chapterfive)
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Arnold, Adam Robert. "The authority of us : on the concept of legitimacy and the social ontology of authority." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2015. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/76664/.
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Authority figures permeate our daily lives, particularly, our political lives. What makes authority legitimate? The current debates about the legitimacy of authority are characterised by two opposing strategies. The first establish the legitimacy of authority on the basis of the content of the authority’s command. That is, if the content of the commands meet some independent normative standard then they are legitimate. However, there have been many recent criticisms of this strategy which focus on a particular shortcoming – namely, its seeming inability to account for who can legitimately command whom. This is the basis of the second strategy, which attempts to characterize the normative relationship that underlies and makes possible authoritative commands. The central point of Part I is that these two strategies are, in fact, not opposed and both raise questions which a theory of legitimacy must answer. If this is the case, then we need to ask: how ought we to determine the legitimacy both of the content of commands as well as who can command whom? Part II will answer this question. Starting with the question of standing, I argue that we ought not to look for normative principles outside of the institutions in which authority is embedded. Rather, one ought to start by elaborating the ontology of institutions in which a sui generis form of normativity arises. A joint commitment account of social ontology provides the tools necessary to see how the direction obligations emerge concurrently with the formation of institutions. Similarly, the question of content can be answered by paying close attention to the social ontology of institutions. We need not look beyond the internal constitutive standards of the institution itself. The constitutive standards provide an internal criterion by which the legitimacy of commands can be established.
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Palmer, Joseph Edward. "An argument for the biblical legitimacy of "New Way Ministries"." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN) Access this title online, 2003. http://www.tren.com.
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Munro, William George. "The actuarial subject : legitimacy and social control in late modernity." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/2244.
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The following thesis can be read as a socio-historical case study of the emergence of risk discourses within the Scottish Criminal Justice System, particularly in relation to offenders who are defined by their dangerousness. It focuses on the emergence of the Risk Management Authority (RMA) which was set up under recommendation of the MacLean Committee in 2000. The thesis examines the broader social and cultural forces from which the Risk Management Authority emerged by drawing on Hegel’s notion of ‘Ethical Life’ (Sittlichkeit) as a means of framing institutional change. By way of a re-interpretation of Hegel, through the lens of critical theory, it seeks to historicise and make problematic the concepts and assumptions surrounding our understanding of modernity. Through the concepts of reflexivity, legitimacy and indeterminacy it offers a critique of the existing sociology of risk, which places risk at the centre of debates on modernity, contingency and the self-understanding of society. This critique offers a conceptualisation of penal institutions as not just administering punishment, but as instrumental in the constitution of human subjectivity.
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Keller, Roy Heath. "Towards an Understanding of an Institution: The Perceived Legitimacy of Online Business Degree Programs." OpenSIUC, 2011. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dissertations/416.
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Organizational forms can become institutionalized in the sense that their existence and application is taken-for-granted and perceived as legitimate by stakeholders. Over time, new organizational forms can emerge that challenge perceived legitimacy of the established form. From this perspective, this dissertation examined institutionalization in the context of online business degree programs (OBDP) in higher education. Specifically, this dissertation examined OBDP as an emerging institutionalized form in relation to its cognitive legitimacy (taken-for-grantedness) and sociopolitical legitimacy (appropriateness) from the perspectives of four key stakeholder groups (students, faculty, academic administrators, and business practitioners). Survey results suggest that OBDPs are perceived as cognitively legitimate across each of the groups studied and socio-politically legitimate in each the four groups studied except for faculty. Furthermore, a conjoint experiment was conducted to determine the influence that four program related characteristics (accreditation, reputation, placement after graduation, and physical linkage) have on the legitimacy perceptions of OBDPs. Conjoint results indicate that each of the factors studied were significant predictors of legitimacy with accreditation being the most significant across each of the four groups. These findings provide a novel test of institutional theory as well as contributing to practice by offering strategic guidance to business schools either currently offering ODBPs or those planning to develop an online version of an existing program.
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Glennon, Colin, and Logan Strother. "The Maintenance of Institutional Legitimacy in Supreme Court Justices’ Public Rhetoric." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1086/703065.
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Judicial politics scholars routinely posit that the behavior of Supreme Court justices is motivated in important part by concerns of institutional maintenance, that is, by a desire to maintain the Court’s unusually large store of institutional legitimacy. Previous work on this topic, however, has focused almost exclusively on the influence of such motivation on judicial decision making. We contend that if institutional maintenance is an important goal, it should be observable in other contexts as well. We examine televised mass-media interviews with Supreme Court justices from 1998 to 2016 and find that legitimacy reinforcement is the predominant goal reflected in justices’ rhetoric in those interviews.
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Payrow, Shabani Abdollah. "Discourse ethics, power, and legitimacy, the ideal of democracy and the task of critical theory in Habermas." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2000. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp02/NQ57062.pdf.
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Christopher, Theo. "Corporate social disclosure in the timber industry in Western Australia 1989-1998 : A test of legitimacy theory." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2002. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/760.
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In recent years, accounting researchers have turned their attention to media agenda setting theory in addition to legitimacy theory as the theoretical framework for researching voluntary social disclosure in the annual report of a company. Their research has tended to show a significant relationship between the extent and change in the number of press media social reports and the extent and level of social disclosure in the annual report of a company based on the same classification of Social items. They have also explored the existence of a time lag between the number of press media reports and disclosure in the annual report. A critical review of this literature suggested a number of gaps, some of which were acknowledged, present in this research. The purpose of this study is to replicate, refine and/or extend this recent research in a number of important directions.
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Sanjaume, Calvet Marc. "Moral and political legitimacy of secession : a theoretical and comparative analysis." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/130899.
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This doctoral thesis examines the legitimacy of secession in the context of liberal democracies.
This is a recent debate in political theory since secession has been an excluded issue by liberal
theories of democracy. The thesis defends the necessity of incorporating principles and criteria to
analyze the legitimacy of secession from a liberal-democratic perspective. The first article is a
critical review of the theories of secession through a typology. The review outlines the
shortcomings and normative basis of existing theories. The second paper examines three cases of
secession legitimisation (Quebec, Scotland and Catalonia) through the discourse of political
parties. It concludes that these parties advocate for secession from a moderate and pluralistic
approach, a spirit of consensus and a modern conception of the state. The third article discusses
recent developments in Catalan politics in relation to the theories of secession. This suggests a
lack of accommodation and recognition as a key element. It also concludes that Catalan
secessionist discourse is based on diverse normative basis beyond liberal-nationalism. Finally, the
fourth article establishes the basis for including the legitimacy of secession within the theory of
liberal democracy: plurinational recognition, setting criteria for defining political units and a
consent-based legitimacy of the state.Aquesta tesi doctoral analitza la legitimitat de la secessió en el context de les democràcies liberals. Aquest és un debat recent a la teoria política ja que ha estat un tema exclòs per les teories liberals de la democràcia. La tesi defensa la necessitat d’incorporar principis i criteris que permetin analitzar la legitimitat de la secessió des de la democràcia liberal. El primer article fa una revisió crítica de les teories de la secessió mitjançant una tipologia normativa. La revisió apunta les mancances i les bases normatives de les teories existents. El segon article analitza tres casos de legitimació de la secessió: Quebec, Escòcia i Catalunya, a través del discurs dels partits polítics. Conclou que aquests defensen la secessió de manera moderada i plural, des del nacionalisme liberal, amb voluntat de consens i amb una concepció moderna de l’estat. El tercer article analitza els darrers esdeveniments de la política catalana en relació a les teories de la secessió. Aquest apunta la manca d’acomodació i reconeixement com un element clau. També conclou que el discurs secessionista català troba la legitimitat des de diversos pols normatius més enllà del nacionalisme liberal. Finalment, en el quart article s’estableixen les bases per incorporar la legitimitat de la secessió a la teoria de la democràcia liberal. Es considera que aquesta ha d’incorporar el reconeixement de la plurinacionalitat, criteris per definir les unitats polítiques i una concepció de la legitimitat de l’estat basada en el consentiment.
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Baldeh, Ebrima, and Manoubia Ayed. "Hållbarhetsredovisning inom de statligt ägda bolagen." Thesis, Södertörn University College, School of Business Studies, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-3620.
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In recent years there have been many corporate scandals from environmental and social aspects. Corporate irresponsible behavior has led to major public discussions on responsibility and these pressures made that many companies wanting to show that they are working for a sustainable development by voluntarily reporting economic, environmental and social and social issues in the financial statement. They hope this will create credibility for the companies. In the current situation, there are a number of guidelines that companies can use to report sustainability. One of these is the GRI guidelines which is an international framework that covers many accounting areas and allows companies to compare their sustainability reports with other companies.
The purpose of this study is to determine if all state-owned companies follows the government’s requirement that these companies must form a sustainability report under the GRI guidelines, and the sustainability report must be audited and certified by an outside party. To answer the purpose of our study, we have chosen to investigate all these companies’ sustainability reports which are available in the corporate website for the year 2009 but also 2008 to see if there is any development between these periods. The sustainability reports were examined in three categories that would give the answer to our question and this was shown in a table. The theories that we have used is the intuitional theory and legitimacy theory at finding out if they can explain the empirical results. In our conclusion, it appeared that not all the companies had acted in accordance with the requirement applicable to the three aspects that were investigated in 2008; none of these issues had been fully recognized by the companies. For 2009, it emerged that the companies had become much better at reporting under the guidelines. All companies reported fully under the requirement in two of the three categories.
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Lundberg, Jonathan, and Daniel Ek. "CSR reporting in the Banking Industry : A study of 10 Banks in Sweden (2012-2016)." Thesis, Internationella Handelshögskolan, Högskolan i Jönköping, IHH, Företagsekonomi, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-39600.
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Background: Corporate social responsibility has received a lot of attention because of the impact that companies have on the society and the environment. EU is taking legislative measures to further increase the awareness and importance of CSR. The banking industry is often excluded from CSR discussions and research studies, due to the perception that the banking industry has a limited effect on CSR matters. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate CSR reporting levels from Swedish banks. Furthermore, the impact of bank size, board size, and board diversity on CSR reporting level will be examined through hypotheses testing. Method: Data is collected from annual and sustainability reports of Swedish banks. Statistical tests are then conducted and analyzed by the authors. Conclusion: The results show that CSR reporting levels by the Swedish banks is increasing. There is a positive effect on CSR reporting level by bank size, and a negative effect by board diversity. No significant relationship could be found on board size.
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Cowan, Stacey Lynn, and s. cowan@cqu edu au. "Environmental reporting and the impacts of mandatory reporting requirements." RMIT University. Accounting and Law, 2007. http://adt.lib.rmit.edu.au/adt/public/adt-VIT20080110.085951.
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This thesis examines the strategic and potentially legitimising nature of voluntary environmental reporting. First, the thesis examines the relationship between emission levels on the National Pollutant Inventory and the quantity of total voluntary environmental disclosures, voluntary emission disclosures and positive voluntary environmental disclosures in annual reports. Second, an examination of changes in the quantity of disclosures discussing compliance with the National Pollutant Inventory and/or disclosures concerning pollution emissions is undertaken. Taking into consideration the findings relating to the strategic nature of voluntary disclosures, the thesis then examines the potential of such disclosures to impact upon the usefulness of mandatory annual report disclosure requirements. This is undertaken by investigating whether significant differences exist between environmental disclosure practices in the voluntary sections of annual reports for corporations reporting non-compliance, and those not reporting non-compliance, in the directors' report pursuant with the requirements of s. 299(1)(f) of the Corporations Law. The findings suggest that, for the sample corporations, a change in environmental regulation may have been an impetus for changes in voluntary environmental disclosure practices in annual reports. Disclosures are identified as being discretionary, and potentially reactive to changes in environmental regulation, with a significant increase in the quantity of voluntary disclosures relating to the National Pollutant Inventory and in the number of corporations making voluntary emission disclosures during the period. Hence, voluntary disclosures, although discretionary, may provide some indication of the corporation's actual environmental activities and provides some support for industry arguments to maintain a voluntary environmental disclosure system. A comparison of the quantity and nature of voluntary disclosures for corporations required to report non-compliance with, and those reporting no non-compliance with, environmental regulations in the directors' report found no significant differences in disclosure practices between the two groups; that is, in contrast to the findings of previous research, those reporting non-compliance had no higher propensity for either greater quantities of voluntary environmental disclosures or positive voluntary environmental disclosures. The findings suggest that the limitations faced by s. 299(1)(f) in its early years may have resulted in it not being perceived as a legitimacy threat by the sample corporations or as a lesser threat than others such as the NPI. Therefore, questions remain as to whether the section is able to produce the outcomes proposed at its inception. Overall, taking into consideration the discretionary nature of voluntary environmental disclosures, and the limitations of s. 299(1)(f), concern remains as to the quality of the Australian annual report environmental reporting system and the potential for the existence of voluntary environmental disclosures in the annual report to reduce the usefulness of a mandatory disclosure system to users. These findings suggest a need for further research into the effect of both mandatory and voluntary environmental disclosures on users' perceptions of corporate environmental performance.
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Österlund, Henrik. "Contestability and Legitimacy : The Case for Contestability as Political Legitimization in the Presence of Problematic Contracts." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för idé- och samhällsstudier, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-163361.
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In this essay, I discuss the merits of contestability in contrast with consent as a meansof legitimizing the state. Particularly I have been concerned with problematiccontracts: Contracts with undefined obligations and their implications on thelegitimacy of voluntarist consent. Through my argumentation, I have shown thatvoluntarist consent to political mandates has a hard time legitimizing politicalauthority in the presence of problematic contracts – and instead, that legitimationbased on the the ability to contest decisions may provide a better degree of politicallegitimacy. Contestability can seemingly also be combined with elements of voluntaristconsent to further cement the legitimacy of decisions.
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Modula, Michael Vincent. "Trust, Knowledge, and Legitimacy as Precursors to Building Resident Participation Capacity in Public Land-Use Decisions." The Ohio State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1420761351.
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Modula, Michael Vincent. "Trust, Knowledge, and Legitimacy as Precursors to Building Resident Participation Capacity in Public Land-Use Decisions." The Ohio State University, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1420761351.
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Näslund, Fredrik, and Sumaiya Hafsa. "The Value-Relevance of CSR in Stock Recommendations : A Study of the Nordic Markets." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-123548.
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Financial markets have many different key actors, but one of the most important ones are the financial analysts. They are considered as experts in gathering and disseminating the information that firms produce, to those that seek it, such as stock recommendations and reports on firms. Related to this is a growing interest in society toward disclosures in regards of CSR as well as ESG. There has been considerable discussion in academia of whether or not CSR can be considered to be value relevant. This is a question which relate to both institutional and legitimacy perspectives in terms of theory, but also discussions in regards to agency and stakeholder theory as well: Has value relevance of CSR disclosures increased in stock recommendations for the Nordic markets? Thereby, the main purpose of this thesis is to find out whether or not there has been a shifting view of CSR over time, which would be evidenced in an increasing legitimization of CSR in terms of an increasing value-relevance to financial analysts. This would also be related to a shifting institutional logic, whereby it would be possible to relate to a shift in the view of the firm and its role in society. This is both looked at purely from the starting point of the dataset to the end point, but also for two different periods of time, so as to test if there is a different view of the issue after the financial crisis. In addition to this main purpose, this thesis furthermore sets out to answer whether CSR is value-relevant or not in different subsegments, such as nations, industries and the different types of recommendations that exist. To answer the research question, an objectivist and positivist stance is taken, which subsequently leads the authors to utilize quantitative methods and statistical analysis to the data. Here, different panel models are fitted to the data to account effects that exist within it. To explain the findings, a theoretical framework is built upon three different levels: societal, firm and individual level. Here, on the societal level theories such as institutional theory as well as legitimacy theory are dealt with. On the firm level, agency theory and stakeholder theory as well as theoretical views of CSR forms the basis, and the individual level deals with theory related to the financial analyst. In looking at the results and the analysis, one cannot draw the conclusion that there has been a shifting view of the value-relevance of CSR. Financial analysts appear to not find it value-relevant in issuing their stock recommendations, except for two cases: namely in terms of the industrial sector Basic Materials and the Buy recommendations. In terms of Basic Materials, it appears to be value-relevant in a positive manner. In regards to the Buy recommendation, it appears to have a negative effect on the value-relevance. All in all, this thesis cannot find evidence for a value-relevance of CSR to financial analysts in the Nordic markets. Essentially, the view of it appears to be pessimistic.
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Morton, Josh. "Legitimation through openness : managing organisational legitimacy through open strategy in a pluralistic context." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2017. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/28410.
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This research explores how an open strategy approach can be used to manage organisational legitimacy in a pluralistic context, characterised by the competing demands of key stakeholders. Open strategy demonstrates an interest in strategising processes becoming more inclusive and transparent (Hautz et al., 2016). Open strategy work to date has focused on its uses and implications, and how strategic inclusion and transparency are being displayed in different organisational contexts. Much open strategy literature also associates the central purpose of open strategising activity with organisations seeking to manage legitimacy (e.g. Chesbrough and Appleyard, 2007; Whittington et al., 2011; Tavakoli et al., 2017), particularly through ensuring that their actions are desirable in the opinion of key stakeholders (Suchman, 1995). Whilst a small number of studies have explicitly focused on open strategy and legitimacy, these do not go beyond illuminating legitimacy as a potential effect (Gegenhuber and Dobusch, 2017) or outcome (Luedicke et al., 2017). Absent has been research attempting to specifically understand open strategy as a process of legitimation (Uberbacher, 2014), and there remains a need to unpack and elevate the significant potential of open strategy approaches for managing legitimacy further. To address this gap, this research presents an in-depth single case analysis of an organisation undertaking the development of a new four-year strategic plan using an open strategy approach. A number of data collection methods were used, including completion of 30 semi-structured interviews, participant observations, and collection of significant social media and documentation data, to explicate the concepts of open strategy and organisational legitimacy, addressing the question; How does an open strategy approach represent a process of legitimation for managing the competing demands of organisational stakeholders? . A pluralistic context, a UK-based professional body, is the basis for the empirical work. It is acknowledged that interrogating the intricacies of strategising in pluralistic contexts, and the inherent competing demands of stakeholders, might offer new perspectives, and a useful means of expanding the contextual base of practice-based strategy work (Jarzabkowski and Fenton, 2006). However, studies of open strategy in pluralistic contexts remain near non-existent in the literature (Lusiani and Langley, 2013). In the organisational legitimacy literature, there is much discourse on how legitimacy is managed and gained through specific legitimation processes and strategies, and increasingly such a focus has been adopted to recognise how organisations might manage legitimacy demands in contexts defined by plurality, amidst diffuse power and divergent objectives (Denis et al., 2007). In this study, a practice-based activity theory framework is used (Jarzabkowski 2005; Jarzabkowski and Wolf, 2015) to explore legitimacy in relation to organisational direction and priorities, and as a means of redefining the organisation s core goals in an enactment of strategic openness. The work here conceptualises how the case organisation has adopted a plethora of open strategising practices for legitimacy effects (Suddaby et al., 2013), providing a detailed account of how different dynamics of open strategising activity connect to specific forms of legitimation over time. The findings indicate that different open strategy dynamics represent the case organisation switching between distinct approaches to legitimation, as a means of managing the competing legitimacy demands of organisational stakeholders in a flow of activity. Through this narrative, a greater perception of legitimation as a core purpose of open strategy is provided. Overall, this research offers an important contribution by accentuating the principal relevance of organisational legitimacy in open strategising, particularly through elevating legitimacy beyond being understood as an effect or outcome in open strategy work. Further, this more explicitly brings open strategy into close alignment with the organisational legitimacy literature and its theoretical conceptions (Lawrence et al., 2009; Suddaby et al., 2013), which is imperative for understanding the potential importance of open strategy as a means of legitimation.
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Zhao, Xi, and Meng Guo. "What is the impact of industrial environmental events on the quality of environmental disclosure in corporate annual reports? : A longitudinal study." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Handelshögskolan vid Umeå universitet, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-45311.
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Environmental accounting, as a newly developed cross-field subject, has been received increasing attentions in recent years. With public awareness of corporate social responsibility and sustainability, corporate environmental performance also has been aroused among social public, stakeholders, and internal management. Environmental disclosure, as an effective link between corporate management and social responsibility, is becoming a valuable research topic. One unsolved problem of the environmental disclosure is the corporate behavior of listed companies in terms of environmental reporting in the post environmental events period, from 2005 to 2009. Those corporation environmental events, exposed by media, include over pollution, over emissions and illegal environmental activities. According to legitimacy theory, negative social perception and “legitimacy gaps” of the community result from illegitimate corporate activities, like environmental events, and corporations are therefore been threatened in its existence. In this case, enhanced environmental disclosure in annual reports is supposed to be an appropriate way to eliminate threats for corporations and ameliorate negative social perceptions. It imply that corporations with lower level of environmental performance are required to have more environmental disclosure for sustainability. Some prior studies provided evidences that in the period from 1980 to 2002, after some incidents, corporations involved in these incidents indicate a higher level of environmental disclosure in the year when the environmental incidents happened, which align with legitimacy theory. Furthermore, there were incongruence previous results of the relationships between environmental disclosure and firm size and industry characters. We aim to find that whether the corporation environmental disclosure is in a relation with firm size and industry characters or not. And we are to revisit the association between corporate environmental performance and environmental disclosure. This study took the quantitative method statistical technology was used for analysis. In order to get the answer for the research question, four hypotheses were set in this research. Finally, firm size and industry characters have no significant relationship with the level of environmental disclosure. The results indicate that the level of environmental information disclosure in annual reports of 2008 is higher than those of 2005. However, environmental events could not be deemed as a determinant of environmental disclosure, and the results partially support the legitimacy theory. The quality of environmental disclosure of 21 sample companies did not improve significantly in the year when the environmental events happened, but only the environmental disclosure sample companies with environmental events which happened in the year of 2008 improved significantly, compared with the previous year.
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Sheridan, Michael J. "SHIFTING LEGITIMATING ACCOUNTS IN A CHANGING INSTITUTIONAL FIELD: AN ANALYSIS OF THE ORGANIC FOOD INDUSTRY, 1990-2011." OpenSIUC, 2013. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dissertations/702.
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In this study, we argue the organic industry's move towards a more legal definition of organic production indicated a shift in the legitimating criteria in the organic agriculture institutional field, which can be observed through the analysis of the legitimating accounts of various actors. Prior to USDA certification, institutional actors in the organic food field largely relied upon the norms and values of its participants to maintain order. Legitimacy was based on the perception that a firm embodied a certain value set, which typically included opposition to large-scale commercial operations (DeLind, 2000; Drinkwater, 2009). To some, the introduction of federal standards signaled a replacement of the personal trust between consumer and producer, and an increased reliance on external policies mandated by federal certification (Guthman, 2000; 2004a; 2004b). This study explores the intricacies of the various actors' legitimating accounts during this time of a shifting institutional field. Central questions include: how do these actors adapt their legitimating accounts to the changing context? Is there a discernible pattern to their rhetoric, not only over time, but also in relation to the other contemporary legitimating accounts? And finally, if patterns are evident, can they provide insight into the dynamics of legitimating sources in this institutional field?
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Strother, Logan, and Colin Glennon. "Can Supreme Court Justices Go Public? The Effect of Justice Rhetoric on Judicial Legitimacy." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2019. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/7773.
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Chang, Huei-Chun, and huei-chun chang@rmit edu au. "Environmental Management Accounting within Universities: Current State and Future Potential." RMIT University. Accounting and Law, 2008. http://adt.lib.rmit.edu.au/adt/public/adt-VIT20080424.122823.
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Environmental management accounting (EMA) is attracting increased recognition as a management tool that assists in improving financial and environmental performance through enhanced environmental accountability. Various industries have been included in EMA-related research and study, but universities have typically failed to be the focus of the attention. This research studied the experiences of key managers from five universities to explore potential factors influencing the decision to adopt, or not to adopt, EMA within the higher education sector. For the purpose of this study, EMA is defined as the generation, analysis, and use of monetary (or financial) and physical (or non-financial) environment-related information in order to improve organisational financial and environmental performance. The two objectives of this study were to understand current accounting practices for managing major environmental costs, and to identify factors influencing EMA adoption within universities. For the purpose of this study, the major environmental costs referred to are limited to the costs pertaining to the consumption of electricity, water and paper, and the generation of wastes. A case study methodology was followed using semi-structured interviews of key personnel with four different management functions (i.e. environmental management, management accounting, senior management, and heads of academic schools) within each university, and performing content analysis on the transcribed interview data. Specifically for achieving the second research objective, a theoretical framework that considers four theories was embraced to guide the data collection and focus the study. The four theories are contingency theory, institutional theory, legitimacy theory, and stakeholder theory. The findings of the first research objective revealed that there was a general lack of EMA utilisation within the case universities. This was in part due to a perceived lack of appreciation by key personnel of the extent of environmental costs being incurred, but arguably mainly because of the absence of relevant environmental cost information being brought to the attention of senior management. Although environmental sustainability was promoted as important from an environmental management perspective, efforts to improve internal environmental accountability, in particular from an accounting perspective, were still absent. In relation to the second research objective, it was found that five key barriers contributed to this lack of EMA utilisation within the five case universities, and they were attitudinal, financial, informational, institutional, and management barriers. Among the factors that provide further explanations about how each barrier influences EMA adoption, resistance to change, resource constraints, (a lack of) legitimacy considerations, and a lack of environmental responsibility & accountability were found to be strong factors, as they were supported in all of the five cases. Apart from the theoretical extension to this area of research, the results and findings of this study supported the uses and applications of EMA by the higher education sector. Much more can, and should, be done by universities in relation to how they account for the environment. This can provide benefits not only for the sector itself, but also for the environment in which we live.
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Höjlind, Jonatan, and Wael Shehadeh. "Sustainability performance & Ownership structure on the Nordic market : A quantitative study on the relationship between the two." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-185316.
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This thesis investigates the relationship between sustainability performance and ownership structure, measured using the ESG (environmental, social and governance) rating and ownership structure divided into four different ownerships (family/founder, institutional, corporate and governmental). In the pursuit of analysing the relationship between the ESG rating and the ownership structure, this study investigates publicly listed companies within the Nordic countries.This thesis has the aim of examining if a publicly listed company can use sustainability ratings and ownership structure, to understand broader market dynamics and help the manager thru this maximise firm value. Results from this could help them and the public in decision making processes around sustainability initiatives and how these characteristics influence the Nordic market dynamics, by having a better understanding of how the ESG ratings are prioritised among different ownership structures. This knowledge would allow management and the public to better understand how the ESG rating affects firm’s sustainability value as well as how market dynamics of this information is related to the market as a whole and direct competition.Using secondary data collected from Refinitiv database and Nasdaq, this thesis is a deductive and quantitative research that analyses companies for the target year 2020. In addition, this research can be considered to be a historic study.The findings of this research indicate a causal relation between sustainability performance and ownership structure, leading to the conclusion that a different ownership structure might influence and lead to a different score on the scale of sustainability performance. Furthermore, the findings indicate that the governmental ownership structure has the highest positive effect on sustainability performance.Concluding with discussing how this research contributes to the current field of knowledge on the topic through analysing the results using the legitimacy, shareholder, stakeholder and agency theory. The results are aligned with the legitimacy theory on ownership structure and the stakeholder theory. Additionally, the shareholder and the agency theory help with explaining why some structures put less value on sustainability performance than others.From the results one can conclude that sustainability performance is of importance to a varying degree among the different ownership structures. This tells us that there is still a gap in understanding why different ownership structures engage in different sustainability initiatives and future research is needed to examine why different structures engage in it over others.