New Social Enterprises andOrganisational Legitimacy Challenges : An explanatory case study of the 2017 JU Solar Team. Why are there organisational legitimacy challenges for new social enterprises and how the JU Solar Team overcame them.

Abstract: Social enterprises is a relatively new way of operating a business that is becoming increasingly popular in our modern society and new social enterprises face a wide array of challenges in their start-up phase. A very common type of challenge that many new social enterprises face are organisational legitimacy challenges when forming collaborations. Due to social entrepreneurship being a relatively new field, research of the legitimacy aspect regarding new social enterprises is lacking. This thesis aims to fill this research gap by explaining why new social enterprise face organisational legitimacy challenges and how they overcome them. The researchers utilized an inductive approach to develop the theory with an explanatory purpose for the research. Single case study of the JU Solar Team was the research strategy chosen to explain the theory and empirical data. The JU Solar Team is a social enterprise that already has overcome their legitimacy challenges when forming collaborations making it a unique and attractive case to study that is difficult to replicate in a multiple case study. The data was gathered through email interviews with members from the JU Solar Team and their collaborators as well as a face-to-face interview with Joakim Brobäck from JU Solar Team’s closest collaborator the Jönköping University School of Engineering. The authors of this thesis concluded that the JU Solar Team Faced organisational legitimacy challenges mostly due to inexperience which resulted in them not being able to efficiently mobilise their limited resources and build networks. The JU Solar Team managed to overcome their legitimacy challenges mainly by diversifying their skillset leading to the team having the human capital needed to communicate the social value and deliver the pragmatic value that the collaborators sought to form collaborations with the JU Solar Team.