Evolution Of Legitimacy And The Growth Of Network Platform Enterprise

Driven by the information technology,the network platform enterprises represented by Internet applications has formed the "winner-takes-all" competition phenomenon,which not only changes the industrial form and organizational structure,but also promotes the transformation of traditional enterprises.The network platform enterprises require not only the application of new technologies,but also the innovation or disruption of business models,to overcome the "liability of newness " or to cross the "threshold of legitimacy",so as to realize the survival and development of network platform enterprises.As an emerging organizational form,network platform enterprises are embedded in a specific social context and institutional environment.They should not only realize platform transaction innovation,but also face the socialized institutional structure.Therefore,it is of great theoretical and practical significance to analyze the effect of legitimacy on the growth of network platform enterprises.Based on the theoretical and practical background,as well as the specific practice of the legalization of network platform enterprises,the existing literature has not been effectively analyzed the process of the legalization of network platform enterprises and the influencing mechanism of the platform enterprises.This dissertation,which integrated the legitimacy theory,resource allocation theory and enterprise growth theory,as well as the related research of network platform enterprises,uses literature analysis,exploratory case study,questionnaire investigation and empirical analysis to analyze the process of legalization,and the relationship between the legitimacy and the growth of network platform enterprise,resource allocation and its growth.This dissertation first focuses on the role of the legitimacy in the growth of network platform enterprises.It is found that with the development of network platform enterprises,the legitimacy gradually accumulates and gradually improves.The dimensions of legitimacy such as regulation legitimacy,normative legitimacy and cognitive legitimacy have a progressive relationship with the growth of platform enterprises.Secondly,this dissertation explores the dynamic evolution of legitimacy in combination with the stage of network platform enterprises.The research shows that the network platform enterprises in the initial stage mainly accumulate users’ cognition of products and obtain the cognitive legitimacy as the dominant task.During the period of shock stage,it continuously accumulates the legitimacy of cognition and regulation,and actively seeks standardized operation to cope with competition,and forms a development stage dominated by normative legitimacy.The network platform enterprises which is in the stable stage breaks the existing institutional constraints,and the legitimacy of regulation can retroact the whole legalization of enterprises.The dominant legitimacy of network platform enterprises in different stages presents a dynamic process from cognitive legitimacy to normative legitimacy to regulatory legitimacy.Thirdly,based on the initial resources constraints of the enterprise,the network platform enterprises creatively dispose resource and the process can be considered as "resource construction mechanism-resource reconstruction mechanism-resources combination mechanism".Finally,through the questionnaire survey of 279 large samples of network platform enterprises,the dissertation verified the relationship between legitimacy and the growth of network platform enterprises,as well as the mediating effects of resource allocation and the regulator effects of opportunity ability.In combination with the stage of network platform enterprises,and three groups of the sample data,the effects of the legitimacy of regulation,normative and cognition on the growth of network platform enterprises are respectively tested.The results show that the cognitive legitimacy plays the most important role and the regulatory legitimacy plays the least role in the initial stage of internet platform enterprises,but there is no significant difference between cognitive legitimacy and normative legitimacy.In the period of shock,the effect of legitimacy is not significant,the reason may be that the implicit threshold of legitimacy and the role of capital is magnified;the normative legitimacy plays a greater role in the stable stage and there is also no significant difference between normative legitimacy and cognitive legitimacy.The reason is that the normative legitimacy is more explicit and forward-looking,and the combination of normative legitimacy and regulatory legitimacy.The dissertation concluded that the network platform enterprises is in the normative stage.Through the above analysis,the innovation points of this dissertation are as follows:firstly,through the research on the three dimensions of legitimacy,regulation legitimacy,normative legitimacy and cognitive legitimacy of network platform enterprises,this dissertation finds that the three dimensions of legitimacy presents progressive characteristics for the growth of network platform enterprises.Secondly,the dissertation elaborates the role of dominant legitimacy according to the dynamic perspective,and the process of cognitive legitimacy-normative legitimacy-regulative legitimacy is been explained.Also the dissertation further found that in the initial stage cognitive legitimacy is more important than the other two,and because of the dual influence of recessive legitimacy threshold and resources transformation process,the three dimensions have no significant effect on network platform enterprise growth,and in the stable stage the normative legitimacy is more important.Therefore,it can be concluded that the overall development of network platform enterprises is in the normative stage.Thirdly,the dissertation summarizes the resource allocation process of network platform enterprises in the context of resource constraints,from operating resources required for network platform enterprise is bound to the structuration of resources until the leverage of high-order resource.The process can be concluded as "resources construction-resources reconstruction-resources combination".