Could Legitimacy through Corporate Social Responsibility be an Antecedent for Export Performance Enhancement: an Exploratory Study

摘要

The search for better legitimacy in an institutional context within social responsible decisions is the main focus of the present work paper. This strategic tradeoff could stimulate stakeholders’ initiatives for ultimate cooperation with companies. The latter could leverage up resources managed by public institutions in order to develop better export performance. Social norms and institutional mechanisms are, however, fostered to raise legitimacy components. Thus, stakeholders use these norms and institutional processes to assess company’s legitimacy. The exploratory study depicts the likely relationship between legitimacy and export performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which are deemed to be legitimate; however, social actions are ignored by interviewers