Paper info

On Managing the Process of Global Network Legitimacy: A Chinese Company Perspective

Brian Low, Fred Jacobs and Wes Johnston

The paper was published at the 24th IMP-conference in Uppsala, Sweden in 2008.

This manuscript combine concept from institutional and network theory to analyse and explain the currently observed behaviour of a Chinese telecommunication equipment company in securing their global network legitimacy. Legitimacy is garnered when the firm conforms to regulative processes, institutional norms and cognitive meanings within the international environment, without ignoring China's institutional endowments and institutional stances. For practitioners, this manuscript shows how companies in latecomer industrialising countries can overcome the late mover position in establishing their legitimacy in a globally, embedded technological network dominated by firms in the advanced economies. For academics, it demonstrates the importance of state's strong sense of protective paternalism in helping to construct competitive indigenous firms that could take on global giants.