Institutional Legitimation of IT Fashions

Many emerging information technology (IT) innovations are proclaimed to revolutionize business – if not the world. This recurring phenomenon of hyperbolic expectations followed by their disillusionment has drawn vast attention amongst researchers in the fields of management and information systems (IS), leading to its conceptual embedding within fashion theory. This proposed study aims to extend the sparse empirical body on IT fashion research, thereby deepening the understanding of the associated organizational consequences regarding an essential organizational outcome, namely organizational legitimacy. In this course, I focus on organizational legitimacy in the eyes of sell-side securities analysts which acknowledges recent findings that identify them as a key source of institutional pressures for legitimacy. Further, I plan to analyze whether and how the respective perception of legitimacy might differ contingent upon different firm characteristics such as industry affiliation or ownership structure.