Cognitive legitimacy refers to “knowledge about the new activity and what is needed to succeed in an industry” and socio-political legitimacy refers to the “the value placed on an activity by cultural norms and political authorities” (Aldrich and Fiol, 1994: 648).
(Bohnsack et al. 2016: 18)
Bohnsack, R. Pinske, J. and Waelpoel. A. 2016. The institutional evolution process of the global solar industry: The role of public and private actors in creating institutional shifts. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, Vol. 20, pp.16-32.
citation is to this –
Aldrich, H.E., Fiol, C.M., 1994. Fools rush in? The institutional context of industry creation. Acad. Manage. Rev. 19, 645–670.
On the other hand, the companies built cognitive legitimacy through discursive processes (Maguire et al., 2004), raising expectations that mass production of solar panels would allow solar energy to enter the mainstream energy market (Buddeet al., 2012). The fact that a major player in the mature oil industry was also a key institutional entrepreneur in the emerging solar industry might have helped to create particularly favourable expectations that solar energy could become an energy source to reckon with in the overarching energy industry
(Bohnsack et al. 2016: 28)
see also legitimacy, normative legitimacy, cultural legitimacy, regulatory legitimacy
marchudson.net 