Transposition of Legitimacy Across Fields: A Case Study of the Swedish Gambling Industry

Abstract: In early 2019 the Swedish online gambling industry was re-regulated, paving way for private operators to establish business. These operators resorted to various marketing activities as they battled for market share. Curiously, an eID-solution became a common element in marketing. We identified a desire to gain legitimacy. This led us to our research question: can legitimacy theory explain why gambling operators heavily marketed their eID-solution, if so how? By combining institutional concepts of transposition and legitimacy we aimed to explore if legitimacy can be a subject for transposition across two organizational fields. We found that cultural-cognitive legitimacy can be transposed, but that the gain was temporary as the legitimate field retaliated out of fear of losing legitimacy. Here, we identified that the state of legitimacy can prevent the durability of the transposition.