The legitimacy of corporate entrepreneurship: : a structured literature review

Corporate entrepreneurship (CE) is essential for today’s firms and currently a topic of considerable interest within the business community. Although the magnitude of related studies has increased over the last years, research on CE is missing an integrated concept and a research agenda for understanding the dynamics of resource deployment and withdrawal, resulting from legitimacy within the organization. The objective of this study is to examine the determinants influencing the provision and withdrawal of resources in the context of corporate entrepreneurship and identify the underlying strategies for gaining legitimacy. Analyzing more than 30 years of research, we provide a multidimensional framework synthesizing the state-of-the-art of resource allocation and withdrawal in CE. Our findings suggest that CE entities undertaking legitimation efforts, to be perceived as a meaningful and trustworthy organizational element and receive active and passive support, is very important. Based on the structured literature review, we propose a legitimacy perspective on the resource dynamics in CE settings, to further advance our understanding of resource deployment and withdrawal within organizations.