Leadership framing legitimacy for the sustainable social impact of nonprofit startups

Abstract Extant research studies shed light on how the business sector establishes legitimacy to access resources for organizational success. There is a big research gap regarding how nonprofits attain legitimacy for sustainable social service delivery. It shall be more important to understand how nonprofits obtain legitimacy than for-profits given their inherent resource constraints. Drawing on Suchman’s (1995) legitimacy theory, this study intends to examine how leadership frames legitimacy for the sustainable social impact of human service nonprofits over time through a survey research design. It is expected that framing pragmatic, moral, and cognitive legitimacies are associated with human service nonprofits accessing resources during startup, professionalization, and institutionalization periods respectively. In addition, this research study also provides nuanced perspectives on specific subcategories of the legitimacy of interests that relate to human service nonprofits accessing resources over time. This research shall have some practical implications for nonprofit leaders and practitioners obtaining legitimacy to access resources for achieving sustainable social missions. Keywords: nonprofit, legitimacy, sustainable social mission, life cycle. Research Questions and Hypotheses The three research questions are as follows: what specific legitimacy of interest primarily framed by leadership is associated with the human service nonprofits accessing resources during startup, professionalization, and institutionalization periods respectively? Hypothesis One: Primarily framing pragmatic legitimacy is associated with accessing resources from resource holders during the startup period. Hypothesis Two: Primarily framing moral legitimacy is associated with accessing resources from resource holders during the professionalization period. Hypothesis Three: Primarily framing cognitive legitimacy is associated with assessing resources from resource holders during the institutionalization period. Variables The independent variables are three categories of legitimacy, i.e., pragmatic legitimacy, moral legitimacy, and cognitive legitimacy, as well as nine sub-categories of legitimacy, i.e., exchange legitimacy, influence legitimacy, dispositional legitimacy, consequential legitimacy, procedural legitimacy, structural legitimacy, and personal legitimacy, comprehensibility, and taken-for-grantedness. The dependent variable is the aggregated financial support from resource holders, such as donors, foundations, and government strategic partners. The two control variables included to capture other influences on accessing resources from resource holders are an organization's size in assets and geographic areas.