Abstract
Entrepreneurs commonly engage in discursive activities to pursue the legitimacy of their new organizations. Previous studies on this pursuit have essentially been focused on verbal language and there is limited understanding of how other communication modes, such as the visual, offer specific potentials for influencing legitimation audiences. With the contemporary pervasiveness of digital documents and online environments that often employ the visual mode, this gap has become more relevant. To address it, this study is guided by the following research question: how do entrepreneurs use the visual mode of communication to legitimize their new ventures? Building on the case of a new organization, this study shows that specific features of the visual mode of communication are especially well suited to sustaining legitimation in particular ways. While previous research has mostly remained on a conceptual level, this study empirically advances the understanding of visual discursive legitimation.
Introduction
New ventures are usually characterized by a lack of track record and reputation that weakens their potential to attract the support of resource-provider audiences, such as investors, employees, and consumers (Aldrich & Fiol, 1994; Elsbach & Kramer, 2003; Lounsbury & Glynn, 2001; Überbacher, 2014). To overcome this weakness, these organizations need to be considered legitimate, that is, as proper and understandable in their fields (Lounsbury & Glynn, 2001; Suchman, 1995). While legitimacy ultimately results from audiences’ judgments, legitimation refers to the purposive efforts made by entrepreneurs to strive for legitimacy (Bitektine, 2011; Suchman, 1995; Vaara & Monin, 2010). Because it is intended to influence others’ perceptions, pursuing legitimacy is highly discursive and communicative in nature (Bitektine, 2011; de Vaujany & Vaast, 2016; Suchman, 1995).
Previous studies have shown that entrepreneurs engage in communication efforts to provide explanations about their organizations’ activities and to convince audiences of their legitimacy (Navis & Glynn, 2011; Überbacher, 2014). However, most of the current research on legitimation continues to be essentially focused on verbal texts, that is, language-based communication, reflecting an enduring tradition in the organization and management domain (Fischer & Reuber, 2014; Martens et al., 2007; Meyer et al., 2018). This narrow focus on verbal texts hinders the understanding of how legitimacy is being pursued in today's world, since with the pervasiveness of digital documents and online environments, communication is also increasingly expressed through different modes, such as the visual (de Vaujany & Vaast, 2016; Jones, 2009; Meyer et al., 2013; Miller, 2011).
Since different modes have different representational properties, they offer distinct potentials for constructing legitimation discourses (Kress, 2010; Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2001). Accordingly, it is reasonable to expect that the visual mode of communication facilitates particular ways of expressing legitimation and enables a different potential from other modes, such as the verbal, to articulate legitimation strategically (Jones et al., 2017; Meyer et al., 2013). Unfortunately, we remain generally unaware of how the particular features of the visual mode of communication matter in the discursive pursuit of legitimacy (de Vaujany & Vaast, 2016; Meyer et al., 2013; Van Leeuwen, 2007). Addressing this gap, I focus my study on the relevance and contribution to entrepreneurial legitimation of the visual mode of communication. I have consequently decided to pursue the following research question: how do entrepreneurs use the visual mode of communication to legitimize their new ventures?
Building on the case of a new organization in the fashion industry, I explore how the visual mode of communication is employed by entrepreneurs in the legitimation of their new firm. I focus in particular on still images (photos) on the organization's website, since the website assumes the central role in the firm's communication and legitimation efforts.
This study shows that the specific features of the visual mode of communication are especially well suited to sustain the pursuit of legitimacy, detailing two distinct potentials for legitimation. First, this research reveals that images allow claiming legitimacy in an implicit way, without the need for presenting verbal logical conjunctions. This can be especially important to reveal conformity to the field without contradicting verbal claims of distinction from it. Second, this study unveils that images are also especially adequate to present legitimacy claims as facts, offering self-justifying proof, since what is portrayed is visually presented as real. Visuals thus allow us to materialize claims before the legitimation audiences, demonstrating their veracity.
While previous research has mostly remained on a conceptual level, this study empirically advances the understanding of visual discursive legitimation. The research design of this study offers a rare empirical exposition of the use of both “archaeological” and “dialogical” approaches to the analysis of visuals (Meyer et al., 2013), including the representational level of images and the intended meanings of the images’ producers, allowing the acquisition of insights into why particular visual artifacts are chosen in legitimation.
Related Literature
New Ventures’ Legitimation and Identity
Research on new ventures has highlighted the fact that these firms usually lack reputation and are characterized by limited resources such as personnel, capital, and consumer goodwill (Rindova & Kotha, 2001; Überbacher, 2014; Zimmerman & Zeitz, 2002). New organizations are thus constrained by their “liability of newness” (Singh et al., 1986; Stinchcombe, 1965). To overcome this liability, new ventures need to convince different audiences, such as investors, employees, and partner organizations of their plausibility and potential (Fisher et al., 2017; Lounsbury & Glynn, 2001; Navis & Glynn, 2011). Hence, legitimacy is seen as essential for new ventures’ creation and growth. Moreover, as recognized in recent studies, legitimacy is also critical beyond the initial stages of activities (Fisher et al., 2016; Garud et al., 2014). Organizations need to continue having access to resources as their activities expand and legitimacy is key in this regard.
Lounsbury and Glynn’s (2001) seminal work on new ventures’ legitimation offered an actor-based approach that addresses how entrepreneurs try to influence legitimacy assessments (Überbacher, 2014). Research within this tradition is thus based on a strategic management view of legitimacy. These studies stress how cultural resources, such as identities, are employed in entrepreneurial legitimation to make new organizations comprehensible (Lounsbury & Glynn, 2001). Organizational identity is pivotal for legitimation efforts (Lounsbury & Glynn, 2001; Navis & Glynn, 2011) since it is through identity that entrepreneurs link their firms to their institutional environments and strive to influence external audiences’ perceptions of the organization (Whetten & Mackey, 2002). In simple terms, organizational identity can be envisaged as the constellation of claims revolving around issues of “who we are” and “what we do,” as well as issues related to “who are we not” (Elsbach & Bhattacharya, 2001; Kreiner, 2011; Navis & Glynn, 2011). Hence entrepreneurs construct an organizational identity that claims membership in a social category, while it also distinguishes the organization from others, especially in its own institutional fields, to achieve legitimacy (Kreiner, 2011; Ravasi & Schultz, 2006).
Although some studies essentially equal legitimacy with conformity and normative appropriateness to context (e.g., Deephouse, 1999; van Werven et al., 2015), others suggest a more nuanced view, asserting that pursuing legitimacy also implies distinctiveness (e.g., De Clercq & Voronov, 2009; Lounsbury & Glynn, 2001; Voronov et al., 2013). These latter studies stress that ventures must present their distinguishing features to explain their competitive advantages and be regarded as legitimate, especially in mature fields (Lounsbury & Glynn, 2001). Scholars have advanced the concept of “legitimate distinctiveness” to articulate this tension between distinctiveness and conformity (Navis & Glynn, 2011; Voronov et al., 2013).
Particular discursive constructions, or strategies, were found to be especially engaging or appealing when influencing legitimacy assessments (Vaara & Monin, 2010). These discourses provide justifications aimed at legitimizing particular ideas. Vaara and colleagues (Vaara et al., 2006; Vaara & Monin, 2010) have elaborated on six discursive strategies of legitimation, building on the work of Van Leeuwen and colleagues (Van Leeuwen, 2007; Van Leeuwen & Wodak, 1999):
moralization: claiming legitimacy within systems and judgments of values; rationalization: employing ideas related to utility and logic to claim legitimacy; naturalization: presenting something as effortless to claim legitimacy; narrativization: claiming legitimacy by using stories; authorization: claiming legitimacy by invoking the authority of tradition, custom, law, or even a person vested in some kind of authority; and exemplification: using specific examples to claim legitimacy.
The strategies mentioned above frequently build on each other and overlap (Vaara et al., 2006).
Multimodal Communication
Although the discursive strategies just mentioned have essentially been considered in the verbal mode of communication, there is no reason why they should not be considered in other modes (Jones et al., 2017; Meyer et al., 2013, 2018; Van Leeuwen, 2007). Verbal language covers only a part of human expression and meaning-making (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2001), and other modes such as visuals and sound (Kress, 2010) are also relevant in human communication processes (Iedema, 2003). Thus communication is multimodal (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2001).
Since different modes have different representational properties, they offer distinct potentials for constructing meaning and social reality (Kress, 2010; Kress & Van Leeuwen, 1996, 2001). Nonetheless, in most instances, different modes interact in expression and meaning-making (Bell & Davison, 2013; Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2001).
It is important to note that it is often through, at least, the interaction of the visual and verbal modes that communication producers suggest meanings (Halgin et al., 2018; Zamparini & Lurati, 2017). These interactions can assume complementarity, where both modes contribute to the same meaning; supplementarity, in which one mode is dominant and the other mode elaborates; and juxtapositioning where each mode expresses different meanings to create a new meaning (Schriver, 1997).
Some main distinctive characteristics of visuals have been highlighted in previous studies, contributing to the understanding of the specificities of this mode of communication. Meyer et al. (2013, 2018), in particular, have greatly contributed to the understanding of the features and affordances of the visual mode of communication. Affordances can be understood as the potential for meaning-making in particular communication modes (Gibson, 1986). This potential is relational between communication producers and readers. Hence meaning is regarded as not fixed or determined but rather as emerging within the relational possibilities yielded by specific affordances (Gibson, 1986). Affordances potentiate the ability to enable or constrain certain ways of thinking or acting (Alcadipani & Islam, 2017) and are thus action possibilities that individuals identify and interpret in light of their own context (Meyer et al., 2017).
I will now address some of the most prominent features and affordances of the visual mode of communication that are important to consider within the purpose of this research (for a complete and detailed overview see Meyer et al., 2018). Firstly, visuals possess an immediacy that makes them prone to being perceived quickly, often without an awareness of the cognitive processing of their content (Meyer et al., 2018; Mitchell, 1994; Rämö, 2011). Thus the feature of immediacy endows visuals with the potential to attract attention rapidly (Bloch, 1995; Edell & Staelin, 1983; Meyer et al., 2018) and present a particular ability to engage audiences affectively, aesthetically, and emotionally (Blair, 1996; Hill, 2004).
Secondly, visuals have high polysemy when compared with other modes such as the verbal (Messaris, 1997; Meyer et al., 2018). This feature enables rich expression and the ability to convey multiple meanings (Eco, 1995; Höllerer et al., 2013). Furthermore, the visual can accommodate even seemingly contradictory meanings by building on both its simultaneous signification and holistic nature (Halgin et al., 2018).
Thirdly, a potential for implicitness is a key affordance characterizing visuals (Bell & Davison, 2013; McQuarrie & Phillips, 2005; Rämö, 2011). Meyer et al. (2018) theorize that visuals can articulate messages that are not expressed verbally and thus can “infiltrate” institutional processes. In particular, the holistic manner in which visual communication is processed enables experiences that are not necessarily coupled with explicit verbal categories (Kress, 2010; Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2001; Meyer et al., 2018; Zamparini & Lurati, 2017). Visuals enable an ability to allude without providing grounds or logical conjunctions and consequently to influence by suggestion, offering the potential to articulate messages that are not intended to be verbalized (McQuarrie & Phillips, 2005; Messaris, 1997; Rämö, 2011; Rossiter & Percy, 1983). This capacity of visuals to invoke without arguing (Höllerer et al., 2013) enables the producers of communication to present claims with limited accountability (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 1996; McQuarrie & Phillips, 2005).
Fourthly and finally, visuals present a potential for a certain fact-like quality that facilitates the assertion of truth (Graves et al., 1996; Meyer et al., 2018). Visuals’ potential to materialize ideas as facts is a key affordance of this mode of communication (Meyer et al., 2018). This affordance of “facticity” is enabled by the ability of visuals to demonstrate verisimilitude with some reality (Jones et al., 2017; Meyer et al., 2018; Mitchell, 1984). Hence they possess the ability to persuade through resemblance (Birdsell & Groarke, 1996) and, in particular, “realistic” depictions such as photos ensure a fact-like quality that supports truth claims on a basic, iconic level (Graves et al., 1996; Mitchell, 1984). What is shown in images is self-justifying (Graves et al., 1996). By being perceived as closely analogous to reality, photos provide a one-to-one correspondence between what is captured and what is actually seen in the world (Messaris & Abraham, 2001; Rodriguez & Dimitrova, 2011).
The Visual in Legitimation
It has been suggested that visuals are especially well suited to providing the comprehensibility required for legitimacy, and in particular to sustaining legitimation strategies, but research on this topic continues to be scarce (Jones et al., 2017; Meyer et al., 2013; Van Leeuwen, 2007). A few studies have, however, started to contribute to the understanding of the use of visuals in legitimation. Höllerer et al.'s (2013) study, for example, found that companies use the testimonial of prestigious stakeholders in their corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports to signal external approval with images. This can be regarded as a strategy of authorization.
Visuals were also found to be a relevant aspect of a legitimation strategy of narrativization (Drori et al., 2016; Zilber, 2007). Drori et al. (2016) have found that the legitimation efforts of universities are often anchored in institutionalized narratives of the social role of the university. These narratives are prominently expressed in the visual identity of the universities and, more precisely, in their icons. The immediacy with which such visual artifacts impact the viewers is an important aspect of the legitimation strategy of narrativization.
Exemplification is yet another discursive strategy of legitimation that can be sustained by visuals (de Vaujany & Vaast, 2016; Puyou & Quattrone, 2018). de Vaujany and Vaast (2016) have shown how visuals are incorporated in the practices pertaining to the legitimacy claims of a French University. In their study, they highlight how narrators point out artifacts that audiences can apprehend visually, and that serve the purpose of subtly invoking the history of the rooms in which the university is currently operating (de Vaujany & Vaast, 2016). These practices may be regarded within a discursive strategy of exemplification.
Finally, a strategy of moralization can equally be supported by visuals (Graves et al., 1996; Lefsrud et al., 2017; Rämö, 2011). Graves et al. (1996) found that US companies claimed different values—such as the moral value of contributing to war efforts—by employing visuals in their annual reports. Importantly, the inclusion of photographs in these reports provided readers with seemingly convincing evidence about the different claims made (Graves et al., 1996; Höllerer et al., 2013; Rämö, 2011).
These studies reveal the pertinence of addressing visuals in legitimation activities. The features and affordances of visuals offer a largely untapped potential to understand the process of legitimation that deserves much more scholarly attention (Jones et al., 2017). In particular, a number of questions remain open. They include: how are discursive strategies articulated in the visual mode of communication? And does the visual mode of communication facilitate particular ways of expressing legitimacy claims? My study is intended to contribute to casting light on these questions.
Methods
Case Selection
This article builds on a case study within the qualitative and interpretative research traditions (Dubois & Gadde, 2002; Simons, 2009; Stake, 1995, 2005). The case of Lovia was selected based on purposive sampling (Stake, 1995) due to its theoretical relevance in accordance with the goals of this research. Good access to the firm and the entrepreneurs was also important for the choice. The firm offers a rich empirical setting for extending current understandings on legitimation (Patton, 2015; Simons, 2009; Yin, 2013).
Lovia is positioned in a premium and luxury fashion field but with a particular business approach based on the use of waste and recycled materials to manufacture its products. Furthermore, transparency about this use of materials and the suppliers has been embraced as foundational for the firm. Thus, the entrepreneurs faced a heightened challenge to legitimize their firm since their innovative approach implied a particular logic (Suddaby & Greenwood, 2005) that did not fit into the common practices of the luxury field. Moreover, and specifically in terms of visual communication, navigating the tension between an identity grounded in the luxury market and the communication about ecological practices was an inherent challenge in this project, and so the case was deemed as especially relevant to address legitimation. Furthermore, one would expect that a venture in the fashion industry would employ the visual mode of communication in a prominent way. Additionally, this is precisely why this case of Lovia is suited to unveiling discursive legitimation expressed in the visual mode of communication; Lovia can be regarded as a “critical” case (Yin, 2013).
Data Collection
The collection of empirical material started in January 2015, with interviews with the three founders of the firm. Over time, I also interviewed five other persons who worked in the organization and the photographer in charge of most images. Thus there was the opportunity to interview all the key people involved in the firm and, moreover, to develop repeated interviews with the entrepreneurs as the fieldwork evolved. The interviews were semistructured with questions defined beforehand. The topics addressed pertained generally to the organization's activities and, in particular, to the communication and legitimation efforts of the entrepreneurs. I was always open to pursuing particular aspects that the informants considered relevant and to further exploration of issues that were not included in the initial questions formulated.
According to case study research logic, a variety of qualitative data sources were employed (Piekkari et al., 2009). Table 1 below synthesizes these data sources. All empirical material was organized in a digital archive (Patton, 2015).
Lovia's Data Sources.
As stated in Table 1, different kinds of documents such as newsletters, press releases, and presentations were collected systematically over time. The fieldwork ended in April 2017 when I considered that there was a satisfactory data set that enabled me to answer the research question.
The access obtained to the entrepreneurs and the continuous collection of data allowed me to follow the case in real-time and to discuss the entrepreneurs’ decisions with them, as well as to analyze how the firm's communication and activities evolved over time. In particular, I was able to track the evolution of Lovia's visual communication in my repeated interactions with the entrepreneurs, for example, the planning of photoshoots of collections and changes in the visual content of the website (as well as the underlying motivations).
The website of the firm was central as a source of empirical material due to several reasons. Firstly, websites nowadays assume a primordial role as a locus of communication intended to reach diverse audiences, including key resource providers such as investors, business partners, potential new human resources, and consumers (Barros, 2014; Pablo & Hardy, 2009). Secondly, websites feature a considerable set of relevant information that makes them especially relevant to addressing organizational strategy and communication (Bell et al., 2014; Kassinis & Panayiotou, 2017; Santos, 2019; Sillince & Brown, 2009). Thirdly and finally, websites are multimodal which allows researchers to address several modes of communication effectively, such as the visual and verbal (Jones et al., 2015; Kress, 2010; Meyer et al., 2013). Given the focus of my research on visuals, the website of the company was considered as especially well-suited to pursuing the purpose of my study.
Data Analysis
The process of data analysis unfolded in three main phases. The first phase started while the fieldwork was still ongoing and all verbal sources of data were taken into consideration. The second phase of analysis was centered on Lovia's website, addressing verbal texts and images. A third and last phase of analysis focused specifically on how images on the website were employed in the legitimation of Lovia. As I will explain ahead, each phase built on and extended previous ones, and served a particular purpose of analysis (Lefsrud et al., 2016; Shortt & Warren, 2019).
First Phase of Analysis: Understanding the Case and the Pursuit of Legitimacy
The analysis of data started while the fieldwork was still ongoing and enabled me to engage with the empirical material, also helping to make decisions on how to proceed with subsequent fieldwork (Alvesson & Sköldberg, 2009; Simons, 2009). The purpose of this phase of analysis was to gain an in-depth and holistic understanding of the case and of the entrepreneurs’ pursuit of legitimacy.
It is important to highlight that given the focus on visuals, I decided early on in the fieldwork to discuss photographs with the entrepreneurs. On the one hand, questions related to the motivation for the images employed in the company's communication, as well as the context of their production, among other issues, were included in the interviews over time. On the other hand, in some of the interviews with the entrepreneurs, there were particular moments when there was a specific elicitation of photos. Images displayed on Lovia's website (some images in look books that were also used on the website and others printed directly from the website) were handed to the entrepreneurs or put on the table when I met face to face with them for the interviews. These photos were used as prompts to elicit research participants’ views (Buchanan, 2001; Parker, 2009; Shortt & Warren, 2019). Thus, in this first phase of analysis, images were employed within the context of the interviews.
The photos were selected from the set of images on the website. This choice of images was theoretically informed according to the ongoing processes of data collection. The elicitation of images was undertaken while the interviews were unfolding. Often, the entrepreneurs ended up talking not about what was portrayed in the photographs, but rather about what the motivation was for those images and the wider context that preceded and framed the production of such images. For example, an image that displayed one of Lovia's suppliers was associated with partnerships and ecological materials. The entrepreneurs’ statements were recorded along with the rest of the interviews.
In the first stage, I started the analysis by creating and subsequently refining general descriptive notes to highlight relevant aspects of the material analyzed. These descriptive notes were generated from the verbal texts of all materials, including the organization's website. In overall terms, with these notes, I aimed at identifying recurrent themes that emerged across the different sources of data. Examples of themes identified include: “transparency,” “small company,” “genuineness,” and “moral,” among others. It is important to note that the interview excerpts pertaining to the images shown to entrepreneurs, their reflections, and ensuing perspectives on these images, were also coded with themes. The themes were handled in an open manner (Alvesson & Sköldberg, 2009) and resulted from interpretive content analysis (Miles & Huberman, 1994).
In a subsequent stage, and when all the material was already collected, I searched for specific legitimacy claims in verbal texts. I did this by relying on the initial themes that resulted from the coding described earlier, but extending the analysis with the aim to find answers to the question “What are the legitimacy claims conveyed?” The coding of the claims was organized in short paraphrases. Examples of these include “we are doing the right thing” and “we are ethical, and others are not.” I organized the codes in a table structured by empirical excerpts and legitimacy claims.
I then applied the framework of discursive strategies of legitimation by drawing on previous studies (Vaara et al., 2006; Vaara & Monin, 2010; Van Leeuwen, 2007; Van Leeuwen & Wodak, 1999). The theoretical frameworks of Vaara et al. (2006) and Vaara and Monin (2010) were used as the basis for categorizing the verbal claims in discursive strategies: moralization, rationalization, naturalization, narrativization, and exemplification. The discursive strategy of authorization was not found in verbal texts.
This phase of analysis enabled to construct a holistic understanding of the case and, in particular, to understand how legitimacy was pursued by the entrepreneurs in the verbal mode of communication.
Second Phase of Analysis: Exploring Legitimation in the Verbal and Visual Modes
In this second phase, I centered the analysis on Lovia's website, following a structured and systematic approach to its content, as will be explained. The purpose of this phase was to start exploring how legitimacy claims were expressed in visuals.
The process of analysis of the website unfolded in the following fashion. Firstly, I theoretically sampled the website pages to be analyzed (Lefsrud et al., 2016). Of the 120 individual pages that compose Lovia's website, 119 present both verbal texts and photos. In these multimodal pages, 64 are individual product presentations, following a common design and presenting similarly structured texts. These 64 pages are organized under the “shop” section of the website. The remaining pages of the website vary significantly in their content and relations between verbal texts and images. Thus I decided to include these other pages (55 pages) in the sample as well as five that present products. These five were randomly chosen in the shop section of the website—picking every 11th image in the order products are presented on the website. Thus, I considered 60 individual pages in total in my analysis. These 60 web pages displayed 171 individual unique photos.
I conducted the analysis manually, and page by page, entering the codes in a table, organized by page in terms of lines. The first column identified the website page and the second column presented the verbal texts on that page. I used the analysis already conducted in the first phase. In the following two columns I inserted the legitimation claims and discursive strategies identified. Thus I basically transposed the analysis already made to verbal texts in the website in phase 1 and organized it in the structure of the new table, in this phase 2 of analysis.
The remaining columns in the table displayed the codes relating to the visual mode of communication. In the first two columns pertaining to the coding of photos, I inductively created descriptive short phrases pertaining to images’ manifest and latent aspects. Following Höllerer et al. (2013), I considered the manifest dimension of images as essentially their content. Examples of these inductive codes included: “entrepreneur working in her atelier” and “production moment showing use of recycled clothes.” The latent aspects of the images pertained to the symbolism and connotations of the images (Höllerer et al., 2013). Examples of the coding pertaining to these aspects included “professionalism” and “creativity.” The development of these codes essentially served to understand better the visual vocabulary used and to explore the meaning articulated in the images (Höllerer et al., 2013). Having the verbal texts and images, close to each other in the table, was important to develop the coding of images.
Additionally, I employed Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (1996) visual grammar and analyzed the following aspects of the images: figure/gaze; viewer distance and vantage point; image framing; and image positioning. This analysis was employed to further delve into what was expressed in the images. The focus of this particular step, addressing the meaning of visual elements of discourse and taking into consideration the meaning structures in which the images are embedded, can be regarded as following a tradition that Meyer et al. (2013) call an “archeological approach” to visual analysis.
I proceeded to the interpretation of visual idea elements (i.e., of the typical “claims” articulated in the images) to uncover, first of all, if legitimation could be discerned being articulated in the images. To this end, codes were formulated to give an answer to the question “what are the legitimacy claims conveyed by the image?” Not all images were considered as conveying legitimacy claims. Examples of paraphrases included “we work professionally” and “we use recycled materials.”
Finally, in the last column, I have coded the relations between the verbal texts and images. I have analyzed, in particular, the relative prominence (essentially in terms of area occupied in the page) between the two modes of communication. To this end, I employed Schriver’s (1997) framework and classified, in particular, the relation between verbal text and images, with the following codes: complementarity, supplementarity, and juxtapositioning.
In this second phase of analysis, and as explained, the images on the website were coded and put next to verbal texts codes, which allowed to develop a holistic view on the legitimacy claims in both modes of communication. This second phase laid grounds for the third and last phase of analysis.
Third Phase of Analysis: Understanding Visual Legitimation
In the third and final phase of analysis, my focus was specifically centered on the images of the website. The ultimate purpose was to explore in what specific ways visuals were employed in legitimation. The analysis of images in this phase extended the work conducted in the previous one, further abstracting and theorizing from the data set (Ravasi, 2017; Shortt & Warren, 2019). This was done by bringing together the coding from phases one and two, and by employing “visual pattern analysis” (Shortt & Warren, 2019), as I will explain ahead.
The process unfolded as follows: firstly, the website images were printed. Only the images where possible legitimacy claims were discerned, and accordingly coded with a paraphrase to answer the question “what are the legitimacy claims conveyed by the image?” (see phase 2), were considered. Following Shortt and Warren (2019), I grouped the photos in several sets. Each set was organized around the particular legitimacy claims coded in phase two.
Having the printed images grouped in sets, I brought to the process of analysis the coding of the interviews’ data pertaining to how entrepreneurs envisaged images in their brand communication, developed in phase one. Thus through the sense-making of entrepreneurs, captured in the interviews where visuals were employed as triggers to elicit reflections, I was able to proceed with a “dialogical approach” to analysis (see Meyer et al., 2018), where the interpreters can be seen as both the researcher and the field actors.
I advanced with the analysis reflexively, by grouping and regrouping the photos to organize images within particular ways of expressing legitimation visually. Essentially, I developed “visual pattern analysis” delving into the specific patterns of claims expressed across images (Shortt & Warren, 2019). The value of this visual analysis is the potential to develop new ways of seeing the phenomena being studied and to abstract and theorize from image sets (Ravasi, 2017; Shortt & Warren, 2019). I thus sought to further explore the legitimacy claims in images already coded in phase two and that were used to group the images in these sets, in the first place, as explained.
The claims presented in Figures 1 and 2 were the ones that prominently emerged from this analysis and the regrouping of images. It is important to note that not all images were ultimately considered within the identified claims and so these claims are the most relevant ones that emerged from the analysis. Based on the identified claims, I have then abstracted the central ideas of these claims and proceeded to explore the discursive strategies of legitimation. Again, reflecting on the patterns across images and on the perspectives of the entrepreneurs expressed in the interviews, I abstracted the discursive strategies present in Figures 1 and 2. The theoretical frameworks of Vaara et al. (2006) and Vaara and Monin (2010) were used to code these discursive strategies.
Data structure of the visual legitimation strategy of authorization.
In the final stage, and using the image sets now organized around the identified discursive strategies, I explored how these particular images sustained legitimation, employing Meyer et al.'s (2018) view on the features and affordances of visuals. With heightened sensitivity to how legitimacy was claimed after the analysis made until this point, I developed new iteration cycles of reflection while immersed in the data. In this final stage of analysis, I employed again the coding of the interviews’ data pertaining to how entrepreneurs envisaged images (phase one) and the coding of phase two in terms of manifest and latent aspects of images, as well as the coding pertaining to visual grammar and concerning the relations between the verbal texts and images, to further develop the analysis of the image sets. This process of analysis had as purpose delving into how the features and affordances of the images under analysis sustained legitimation. Progressively, and inductively, implicitness and facticity emerged as key affordances of visuals used in legitimation, as will be explained in more detail in the next section.
Findings
Lovia: A New Organization in the Fashion Industry
Three Finnish entrepreneurs founded the firm Lovia in Helsinki in the summer of 2014. The organization started to commercialize women's bags and jewelry in the spring of 2015, targeting high-end international consumers and markets. One of the entrepreneurs designs the products and the manufacturing is outsourced in small batches in Finland and Italy. Sustainable practices and ethical behaviors are central concerns for the entrepreneurs and are arguably the main features making it distinctive as an organization in this field. The entrepreneurs collaborate with a network of selected suppliers and the production involves exclusively ecological materials. These mostly include recycled leather and pieces of leather that end up as discarded due to their small size (called excess leather), for example, in the production of furniture, as well as leather from salmon and lambs.
Lovia's website makes the products available for sale internationally and presents a section entitled “Product DNA” that provides a detailed information about the suppliers, the materials used, and the production processes. In addition to the usual responsibilities in new firms—product expertise (Outi, designer) and sales (Tiina, sales)—Lovia has a third founder, Anniina (a former journalist) with the main mandate to make the “Product DNA” information in this section available.
The entrepreneurs and a small group of investors funded Lovia in its initial stage of activity. However, attracting additional funding has been an ever-present concern for the entrepreneurs since then. Furthermore, convincing retailers, as well as other business partners such as manufacturers of the organization's credibility, has also been an important dimension of the entrepreneurs’ communication efforts. The main audiences of the entrepreneurs’ legitimation efforts have been retailers, manufacturers, investors, journalists, and opinion-makers in the fashion field, as well as end-consumers. Being positioned in the luxury market while using mostly leftover materials is not a common way of acting in the field and so the entrepreneurs have been active in communicating their explanations for their business approach.
The website has assumed a central role in Lovia's communication since the foundation of the organization and visual communication in this medium is deemed as very relevant to legitimation. Hence the potential of the website to communicate visually was essential in the choice of this medium for focusing Lovia's communication efforts. In particular, legitimation efforts on the website are seen by the entrepreneurs as fitting into this emphasis on visual communication, as Anniina explains: [the firm's website] … basically like… crystallizes … our ideas in a visual form. That's actually what we’ve been talking about, it's like how to… deliver the message… the idea… what is… all things that Lovia represents… how to crystallize it [the brand] in [the] visual world, because that's actually how people work nowadays. So, that's one of the things that is… very essential.
Choosing the most suitable images to use in the organization's communication is regarded by the entrepreneurs as absolutely vital. Importantly, the processes of image selection are not left to external partners, such as the designer of the website, but are rather always handled directly by the entrepreneurs. The photos ultimately chosen are thus always the result of careful and thoughtful discussions, revealing the strategic importance of the visual mode of communication.
Identity and Legitimation: Between Conformity and Distinctiveness
The discursive strategies employed by Lovia's entrepreneurs are embedded in the firm's identity construction: claims of “what we do” and “who we are” underlie the pursuit of legitimacy. However, and importantly, Lovia's identity is also underpinned by claims of “who we are not.” Firstly, there is the distinction established with regard to big corporations. This is evident in the entrepreneurs’ statements as well as in diverse instances such as in the company's business plan, where Lovia is presented as “standing out from big corporations.”
Secondly, and at times building on the difference from big corporations, sustainability is invoked as the fundamental contrast between Lovia and other companies. This is noticeable in how Outi describes her view on the contradictions of claiming to act in a sustainable way without really being sustainable, choosing one of the biggest companies in the field to make her point: … I totally believe H&M it's totally like… green-wash… it doesn’t matter if they are [claiming to have sustainable practices] … because [the] basic problem is that they’re using like a conscious collection with cotton… and cotton is a huge problem… like the whole production… even if it's organic. And, it's only x per cent of their collection and they’re doing like millions of tons or ten millions of tons of stuff!…
Thus, through multiple discursive contrasts building on Lovia's sustainable practices, the company is often presented as different from others. However, the company also claims to be a trustworthy firm that follows industry standards. Hence, in overall terms, Lovia's identity and the discursive legitimation claims that it builds on result from a tension between distinctiveness from the field and conformity to it. Distinctiveness emerges from the contrast to big corporations and by the differentiated sustainable practices. On the other hand, conformity is assumed within the premium fashion field.
The Verbal Legitimation of Lovia
The legitimation of Lovia is multimodal: verbal and visual modes of communication are intertwined, and legitimation is constructed with both, in the company's website, and also in other media and communication activities such as press releases and promotional booklets. However, Lovia's entrepreneurs use discursive strategies in distinct ways. I will start by addressing how legitimation is pursued with the verbal mode.
First, a discursive strategy of narrativization is employed by Lovia's entrepreneurs in the organization's communication and also in their own personal interactions, such as public presentations and interviews with media. The narrative explains that the organization is different from others, essentially by being truly ethical and sustainable.
The following excerpt presents the narrative that is commonly used to explain the existence of the firm, as told in the first person by Outi, in the company's website blog. Together with this text, there are also photographs on the webpage that complement the account by showing instances related to what is described in the text.
I started my professional career by working with a small & creative Finnish fashion company. (…)
I started questioning the need to design anything new into the world of excess. There is already too much pollution, toxic, and waste caused by the fashion industry and consumption culture overall. I was thinking to start doing something entirely different. I had to quit. (…)
I had an idea that I could justify my profession as a designer only if I would be able to do things ethically right. I read a study that claimed that the consumption rate of people is not forecasted to go down. In case people would keep buying new things and fashion anyway I wanted to do my part in how anyone could make better choices.
This was the starting point for Lovia but I knew I could not make it alone. Last autumn I discussed my ideas with my friend Tiina. She was instantly with me and believed we could have this work out and make it a great brand. Then I met Anniina at an entrepreneur course and quite quickly it was clear that she would be part of the team too. (…)
Anyway, now we are here to proudly tell you what Lovia is. It is a crystallization of the passion the three of us share. We want to do fashion business as honestly and sustainably as possible, developing it constantly to better ideas and practices.
There are a number of different ways this narrative is presented in distinct instances, but the main ideas expressed above in the company's website blog are essentially followed. Naturalization is another discursive strategy that is employed in the company's communication and most prominently within a narrative format: ideas and events are presented as just effortless. Naturalization is evident in the way Outi describes how the ideas about how to develop a different and sustainable fashion business started appearing without effort, and also how the meeting of the founders happened almost spontaneously. As it happens with the narratives, a discursive strategy of naturalization essentially builds on being different from the field.
In the same way, a discursive strategy of moralization builds on differentiation. The discursive strategy of moralization is not only present in this version of the narrative on the website but is also evident in the overall communication of the company and in the statements of the company's founders. The search for better choices and solutions reveals the morality of the entrepreneurs. This morality, often expressed in their personal stories gets intertwined with the morals claimed for the company, as the following example illustrates: I think I have the same.. issues… as Outi has… to be more sustainable. I don’t want to work in fashion just for fashion. I want… I don’t necessarily any more agree with the terms that most of the companies… how most of the companies do things in fashion. So, if I would be working… like when… I’m working in fashion right now, I want to do something good at the same time (Tiina).
A discursive strategy of rationalization is also employed in the verbal mode of communication. Logical arguments are invoked to carve a differentiated positioning in the market. In the narrative excerpt above, a rational perspective underlies the quantification used when arguing that too much pollution and waste are caused by the fashion industry. The employment of arguments based on logic and utility is evident in how the entrepreneurs justify their choices.
Finally, a discursive strategy of exemplification is evident when examples of materials, suppliers, and persons involved or collaborating with Lovia are disclosed. Transparency is claimed as one of the essential values of the company and on the website, one can find a wealth of information that exemplifies how the ethical and sustainable activities of the company happen in practice. These examples clearly reinforce the differentiation of Lovia in its field, as is illustrated in the following excerpt taken from a presentation to potential investors: There are many actors in the luxury and premium fashion market, but there's a seat free for a brand that succeeds to profile as a truly transparent and traceable throughout collections and production line.
With a myriad of examples on Lovia's website, the idea of sustainability is emphasized and serves as the basis for claiming distinctiveness. The company also claims to follow industry standards and conformity is an essential part of its legitimation efforts. Visuals are strategically employed to make these claims, as we will analyze in the following section.
The Visual Legitimation of Lovia
On Lovia's website, there are pages where verbal texts are dominant and clearly articulate discursive strategies of legitimation, as in the blog post analyzed above (an overview of Lovia's employment of verbal discursive strategies is presented in Appendix A). On these pages, there are also images—often photographs—that complement the verbal accounts. However, there are also other pages where legitimation claims are primarily sustained by photos. In this section, I am going to address legitimation predominantly constructed with the visual mode of communication.
Lovia's entrepreneurs employ a discursive strategy of authorization to present the company as a trustworthy and competent new actor in the field. By claiming the recognition of others in their communication and by presenting the company practices as following customs in the field, a strategy of authorization is in place. Conformity is the underlying logic of this discursive strategy in the visual mode of communication.
Although there are hints about a strategy of authorization in verbal texts, as when it is described that Lovia was invited to participate in important field events, these hints are presented in a subtle manner. It is mostly through visuals that Lovia's founders suggest the company's trustworthiness and competency in the field, as explained by Tiina: [We wanted]… to have a working, customer-friendly site… and also obviously… because, the site is really visual and, in fashion you have to be… able to show your work… in just few images, and what's the style of the… collection or the whole brand or… or things like that (…) And then… being trustworthy… looking trustworthy… especially now that we’re a new brand… you have to look like [a trustworthy brand] and you have to be one.
Figure 1 presents empirical instances illustrating the development of the analysis of legitimation claims (first-order concepts) and the central ideas of those claims (second-order themes) that in turn sustain a visual discursive legitimation strategy of authorization. The images presented were chosen because they were considered typical within this strategy. In Appendix B, there are additional visual empirical instances that sustain the visual discursive legitimation strategy of authorization.
Images 1 to 3 express the organization's capabilities to act according to what is expected of a credible firm in its field. Through image 1 one can peak into the working space of the company's founder. With a professional posture, Outi is diligently working, between the computer and a sewing machine. Importantly, displayed in this photo, and also shown in even more detail in other photos on the same page, there is a wall full of visual artifacts that serve as inspiration to the designer. A brief text (see Appendix C) supplements the visual communication, presenting the explanation that Outi is working on the new collection. The entrepreneur and designer is also an artist that follows inspiration to do her work. Thus she embraces her creativity, in a professional manner as the photo shows, and as one would expect in the field.
Image 2 is presented on a page with the title: Lovia at Kota sustainable fashion awards in New York City. On this page, there are three photos that show the company's products being presented on the runaway. Images dominate the space of the page. A short text (see Appendix C) describes the event, and supplements the message of images, by elaborating on their manifest meaning. With these images, it is suggested that the organization is invited by its peers to showcase the products at international industry events. Lovia is thus portrayed as a trustworthy organization that is recognized by other players in the field.
Finally, Image 3 shows that Lovia collaborates with proper field actors. This image is displayed in the blog section of Lovia's website. The blog entry is entitled “Lovia on Instagram” and the photos on the page serve as links to the social media site. A very brief text (loviacollection creating the world of #bringbackthemuse collection #loviacollection) explains the context of the image. In addition to Image 2, there are two other photos on the page. In terms of the relationship between verbal texts and photos, photos are clearly dominant on the page and verbal texts elaborate on the manifest meaning of the images. In Image 3, one can observe a photo shoot of one of Lovia's collections, as the verbal text indicates. In terms of the gaze provided by this image, there are four people and diverse technical artifacts that can easily be assumed to be related to the photo production. The distance between the reader and the persons depicted is significant. Furthermore, in terms of the vantage point of the viewer, the viewer of the image stands on equal terms with the three persons at the lower level of the photo, in a subordinate position to the apparent leader in this setting. This leader is holding a camera and it can be inferred that he is the photographer. His elevated position in relation to the other persons in the image and the fact that they seem to be looking at him and expecting or following his instructions, further reinforce his leadership role.
The image has been cropped in a way that centers the attention on the production side of the photo shoot. The viewer of the image does not have to focus any attention on what is being photographed. Rather, he/she is invited to observe directly what seems to be a highly professional working environment, where a team of people, under the leadership of a photographer, are working with a complex set of technical equipment to photograph the organization's products. In Image 3, the entrepreneurs are not categorically claiming the trustworthiness of their new company but are rather suggesting it by showing how other proper actors in the field collaborate with Lovia.
In sum, the firm is portrayed with photos as being authorized by working with proper professionals and by following industry norms, fitting on what is expected from an organization in the fashion field that is capable of presenting itself and the products in an exemplar way, as explained by Tiina, one of Lovia's founders: [on the website] … you get… pretty detailed information about the products that we have… and you see the look… the [product] pictures… you can see that we are actually… really professional to do this kind of pictures…
With photos, Lovia is presented as sharing equal grounds with other players in the field. There is an implicit authorization related to how other actors get involved with Lovia. The entrepreneurs present themselves as following industry practices and as being recognized and accepted by others and thus invoke this authorization as part of their legitimation efforts.
Importantly, legitimation claims of trustworthiness and competency are not explicitly articulated in verbal texts. It is through images, such as the ones analyzed (see additional empirical data in Appendix B) that authorization is set in place.
This study also reveals a second way visuals are employed in legitimation. Lovia's entrepreneurs use a discursive strategy of exemplification to emphasize key claims of their legitimation and to emphasize their distinctiveness in the field. In particular, they attest to the truthfulness of some of their practices and also their own authenticity through photos. The underlying logic of this employment of visuals is to present evidence. Veracity is thus central to how to claim legitimacy in this way.
It is important to highlight that offering proof with visuals was essentially identified when the verbal mode was paired with the photos. Lovia's partnerships with ethical suppliers and their artisanal mode of work, the use of recycled materials, as well as the genuineness and originality of its founders were articulated in the verbal mode. With visuals, the entrepreneurs demonstrated the veracity of such claims and enriched them in terms of expression. Thus, both modes of communication were found to complement each other in terms of meaning expression, in the website pages where examples are presented within a logic of legitimation.
Figure 2 presents empirical instances that sustain a visual discursive legitimation strategy of exemplification. In Appendix D, there are additional visual empirical instances that illustrate this strategy.
Data structure of the visual legitimation strategy of exemplification.
In Image 4, one can see the face and the working space of one seamstress that works in a leather factory in Estonia. This example of a supplier of Lovia is characterized in detail in the verbal mode of communication (see Appendix E) while seven large-sized images essentially show the faces of the employees working in this factory. This page is inserted in the DNA section of the website, which discloses the sustainable materials employed in Lovia's products, as well as the manufacturers involved in the production. These latter are characterized as Lovia's partners and their ethical and sustainability practices are emphasized. Here the logic of transparency is central, and as explained in the texts, the company's sustainable product materials are handled only by carefully selected manufacturers. These manufacturers or partners of Lovia are presented with verbal texts, but also with images that complement the verbal claims.
Image 5 is inserted in the same section of the website and presents a different supplier: a goldsmith. This is another particular case brought to a legitimation discursive strategy of exemplification. In this case, it is highlighted—both in verbal texts as well as in images—the artisanal nature of his work. One can observe part of the face of the manufacturer and peek into his working space where Lovia's jewelry is easily identifiable. This image is presented with two other images that dominate the page, and with a text that characterizes this supplier’s work (see Appendix E).
Another supplier is presented in the same section of the website (DNA section) but here the emphasis of this example is put on sustainability. In image 6, one can see how a used garment is handled to enable a future reutilization. This photo is inserted in the presentation of the Textile Recycling Centre Texvex Forssa, which (as the verbal text explains—see Appendix E) recycles textiles. Lovia sources some of its materials in this supplier, such as linen, and four images complement a rich verbal description of this Lovia's partner and its activities.
Importantly, and as explained, these images serve the particular purpose of being an invocation of truthfulness. This is clearly recognized by Anniina, one of Lovia's co-founders: Someone said [to] me… actually commented our website and the DNA and… she had noticed that there are… the different categories for the DNA sections and stuff… And she realised that, on the bottom, there were the gallery of people who have been actually, part of the… production. And she was like: ‘at that part I actually realised that this is true and it's not just like an image or a story that you tell’. These are real people… who are making it! So, I think… in our era… where everything is… You can make an image [out] of everything… so actually… people [are] looking for something authentic.
In Image 7, in particular, one can see the entrepreneurs’ faces and situate themselves as standing by their claims and the company, without anything to hide. Thus, this image contributes to particular claims of authenticity. The photo is an instance—a moment captured in a photo—that exemplifies the involvement of the founders in the organization. Also, the photo reinforces the stance of the company as a small organization where we can meet all the key people in one image.
This photo is prominently displayed on the webpage “Lovia Founder Team.” On this page, there is a verbal text at the top (see Appendix E) and then only Image 7 is presented. The text complements the image in terms of communication and emphasizes the idea of originality and genuineness. Lovia's founders are unique and truly involved in the business and both modes of communication work together to present them as authentic. However, as explained, the image clearly dominates the space of this particular webpage, and this reinforces the potential impact of its presence.
In this photograph, the entrepreneurs are the sole focus of observation. The extreme simplicity of the photo's background contributes to this: the founders are showing their faces, and around two-thirds of their bodies, and are thus visually exposing themselves and affirming their involvement in the business.
Contributing to a sense of closeness and even intimacy, the distance created between the viewers and the entrepreneurs in Image 7 is relatively short. Furthermore, Lovia founders are looking directly at the viewers of the photo, from a position that establishes equality with them. Direct interaction can thus be experienced. Outi, the organization's designer, explains that this personal presentation on the website emphasizes their genuine involvement in the business: … makes us responsible for… realising those values and not only… saying that's something that we would like to do. It's more like… it's also declaring… but it's also putting ourselves… to interact, to do… interaction with our customers.
Images 4 to 7 provide particular gazes: one can see focused perspectives on the production, product materials, and the entrepreneurs. These particular visual gazes are used within a discursive strategy of exemplification to attest truthfulness and authenticity. As stated by Anniina, one of Lovia's entrepreneurs, competing companies do not prove that their practices are sustainable, whereas, by contrast, Lovia does prove its sustainability by demonstrating the organization's distinctive practices: … and it’s not just that everybody say that we are sustainable, but they don’t actually prove what they’re doing differently compared to others. And I think that's the problem. (…) …try to be something, but not doing it. But we’re actually, we’re honest about what we do. And I think that’s the leverage that we have over the competition.
Thus the idea of proof is notable here: truth is demonstrated through the images presented on the website. Importantly, this proof is established as central in the examples brought to legitimation that establish a difference between Lovia and other firms.
Discussion
In the legitimation of new organizations, deciding on what to show, and on what to keep hidden, is essential. In the case studied, these choices resulted from careful considerations about the positioning of the new firm in its field and the legitimacy claims that help to build this positioning. The interplay between conformity and distinctiveness pervaded these decisions and the ultimate purpose was to present the new firm as an organization that is desirable and needed. This desirability is to a great extent articulated with visuals, and anything that does not contribute to this, in terms of imagery, is hidden.
In the case of Lovia, the identity of the firm follows the imagery of the premium fashion field. The way the products and collections are presented fits into the standards of luxury fashion companies, not of the ethical and sustainable fashion niche industry. Sustainability that is assumed the most important dimension of the firm's positioning and dominant in verbal legitimation efforts is carefully handled in visual terms. Although claimed as central for the whole business approach and the distinctiveness of the company, sustainable practices are claimed in rare visual instances. These instances of sustainable practices, ethical manufacturers, and selected materials are compartmentalized in a particular area of the website (Poole & Van de Ven, 1989). By being confined to a section of the website, the other pages are left free from recycled and waste materials, and these kinds of images. The conflicting tension between dominant and aesthetically pleasant images that fit into the general premium fashion field and images that are needed to depict the distinct practices of using recycled and waste materials is thus toned down. In the visual construction of identity and legitimation, entrepreneurs thus carefully choose what to show and, importantly, what not to show.
The visual mode of communication offers particular potentials to construct legitimation that are different from the verbal mode. This study reveals, in particular, how two affordances of visuals enable one to pursue specific legitimation purposes. Firstly, this study shows that through the implicitness of visuals, entrepreneurs present claims that are not intended to be verbalized. This way, entrepreneurs do not need to assume these claims in a clear manner but can rather suggest them visually.
In the case of Lovia, legitimacy claims were presented within a discursive strategy of authorization that was expressed through images. The entrepreneurs visually claimed trustworthiness, within an overall idea of “professional appropriateness” (Greenwood et al., 2002). This can be regarded as an authorization that derives from a normative fit to the field, what Van Leeuwen (2007) has called the “authority of conformity.” The underlying reasoning for this kind of legitimation is “because that's what everybody else does” (Van Leeuwen, 2007, p. 96). In a related vein, and addressing specifically visual communication, Höllerer et al. (2013) have found that images in CSR reports were used to portray them as trustworthy and professional.
This study proposes the implicitness of visuals as the underlying affordance that enables to present specific claims without presenting verbal arguments. In particular, this study advances the understanding of legitimation by detailing how the ones claiming legitimacy use this affordance. By visually displaying field actors in connection with the new organization's activities, the entrepreneurs claim their trustworthiness to be in the field. Thus, there is an allusion to the field's context to cement the position of a legitimate new organization. These connections to context enrich legitimation by subtly hinting at the authorization of others.
Thus, this study expounds that images can be employed to connote the association of the elements portrayed in visuals with the expectations of legitimation audiences. The ones claiming legitimacy build on their knowledge of field expectations and craft visual cues that others use to build their perception of legitimacy about the new firm. If regarding images like signs, one can understand how these signs and their relationships with other signs are a representation that taps into shared beliefs (Peirce, 1998; Rodriguez & Dimitrova, 2011). Thus, legitimacy claims can be strategically directed to resonate with different audiences’ understandings (Santos, 2019) through images.
Ventures’ identities have to be distinct but at the same time, as institutionalists remind us, these firms must conform, to some degree, to the wider social context to be regarded as legitimate (Navis & Glynn, 2011; Voronov et al., 2013). The implicitness of visuals can assume special relevance in legitimation that presents conformity to the field. In the case of Lovia, trustworthiness is related to claims that suggest a normative fit to the field. By using visuals to express this conformity, Lovia's entrepreneurs avoided explicitly stating compliance to other organizations’ practices. As discussed, distinctiveness from other players in the fashion industry is central in the legitimation of Lovia and repeated continuously over time, and this way, by using visuals, the entrepreneurs avoided contradicting their verbal discourses.
The case of Lovia thus unveils that the ones pursuing legitimacy may want to avoid explicitly stating compliance to other organizations’ practices. The ones claiming legitimacy may also want to avoid declaring something that might be sensitive for some legitimation audiences. In this case, using their understanding of particular audiences’ expectations, those claiming legitimacy may craft visual communication that articulates the intended claims in a subtle manner that is expected to be interpreted differently by different audiences (Santos, 2019).
Thus this study offers an empirical instance of the employment of visuals to sustain a discursive strategy of authorization (Vaara et al., 2006; Vaara & Monin, 2010; Van Leeuwen, 2007). In a different setting, some other discursive strategy—other than authorization—may benefit from building on the implicitness of visuals. Jones et al. (2017), for example, have theorized that visuals can facilitate moralization, in particular, by subtly evoking shared and established values and belief systems. The affordance of implicitness thus opens possibilities to claim legitimacy in very particular ways, allowing to be strategic in the construction of new firms’ positioning in their fields.
Finally, when using visual communication that expresses implicit claims, those claiming legitimation have limited accountability (Meyer et al., 2018). Expressing claims with visuals does not require verbal logical conjunctions and linear argumentation structures (McQuarrie & Phillips, 2005; Meyer et al., 2018; Rämö, 2011). Thus, the potential of visuals to suggest legitimacy claims might be clearly advantageous when compared with verbal texts.
Secondly, this study shows that visuals can be strategically employed to present legitimacy claims as veracious. In the case of Lovia, a discursive strategy of exemplification was employed verbally and then attested with visuals that offered proofs of the legitimacy claims. Graves et al. (1996) have pointed out how visual communication in corporate reports is employed to persuade the public of the veracity of these documents. Since what is portrayed is visually presented as real, it basically leaves no space for contradiction (Graves et al., 1996). In a different vein, Guthey and Jackson (2005) have addressed, in particular, how authenticity is claimed in the visual construction of corporate identity with chief executive officers’ portraits.
This study identifies facticity as the underlying affordance of visuals that allows presenting claims as true and advances previous research by expounding how this affordance sustains legitimation endeavors. By bringing depictions of objects and people to their communication, the ones claiming legitimacy demonstrate that what is claimed verbally is veritable. In the case of Lovia, the visual proofs were contextualized with verbal texts that enabled viewers to understand what was depicted in the photos. Only with this framing could viewers regard the photos as concrete claims, since the interpretation of images is constrained by the fact that people only recognize what they know (Rodriguez & Dimitrova, 2011). Thus, this study details that there is a need for verbal framing in legitimation when images are employed to attest the truth.
This study also advances current knowledge by showing that specific gazes are used when building on the affordance of facticity. It is essential to direct the attention of image viewers to specific situations to enable the validity inference of the claims made visually. Thus, it is fundamental to depict situations that possess the potential to denote meanings directly derived from what is being shown (Barthes, 1973; 1977). Barthes’ (1973, 1977) concept of “denotation,” refers to the first layer of meaning in the analysis of visuals. To understand the meaning of a photo, its viewer must recognize who or what is depicted. As explained, verbal framing of the legitimacy claims is needed.
Additionally, this research adds to previous studies by empirically suggesting that visuals have the ability to enrich the information provided verbally and to consequently expand the meaning created with verbal language. When visuals are employed to attest verbal legitimacy claims, they are not simply representing the verbal claims. Rather, since images allow to condense information, the ones claiming legitimacy expand the meanings proposed verbally. Thus, when images are employed to prove, they offer the possibility to demonstrate information visually that enriches the verbal claims, something that is especially relevant in legitimation.
In the case of Lovia's verbal legitimation, one can read the description of the production practices and apprehend how the entrepreneurs are genuinely devoted to their business. This is different, however, from seeing instances of those descriptions. The level of detail and the expression of meanings in the visual are heightened when compared to the verbal mode of communication (Meyer et al., 2018). In the same vein, the ability to see the faces of the founders standing by the business and their ideological quest is different from reading a text about them. Photos condense considerable information in a single instance. Furthermore, the polysemy of images enables to express the claims in particular ways that extend verbal texts into new realms of meaning. Thus attesting veracity in the visual mode does not work by simply reflecting the verbal claims and backing these up with illustrative images, but is rather a complex construction of meaning that expresses messages in particular ways, extending verbal claims with veracity and richness of expression and thus with a heightened potential for meaning and engagement.
Although this ability of visuals to offer proofs seems especially well suited to be employed in a strategy of exemplification, where a logic of attesting veracity greatly overlaps with the idea of presenting a particular instance as an example, it can also be used with other legitimation strategies.
The affordance of facticity is also especially relevant when newness needs to be made tangible. The visual mode endows legitimation communication with an ontological quality: the visual has the ability to create a reality for the readers of a page. For example, images that present the products of a new organization attest that these products are real. Especially in digitally mediated interactions, such as the ones provided by online media to audiences scattered all over the world, the image of a product might be all that some of these audiences have as tangible evidence from an organization. Hence the photo of a product materializes it (Meyer et al., 2018) before different audiences and in particular before the ones that come to know the organization solely through digital media, such as websites. In these cases, the image of a product is not just a sign but it becomes the referent (Peirce, 1998).
The potential of visuals to demonstrate and prove implies the existence of a material reality that enables further visual representations. Demonstrating legitimation claims visually thus implies that the material practices and artifacts of an organization are supportive of the entrepreneurs’ discursive activities (Vaara & Monin, 2010).
Table 2 synthesizes how the two visual affordances identified in this study can be regarded in the legitimation of new organizations.
Through the visual affordances identified in this study, and present in Table 2, this study offers a framework to envisage visual legitimation. The table shows how particular visual affordances sustain legitimation efforts. Essentially, if there is a purpose to suggest claims and not present a linear argumentation, then visuals can be employed to allude, facilitating associations from what is portrayed in images to broader field expectations and understandings. In turn, if the legitimation purpose is to provide proof, visuals should be employed to strengthen particular ideas articulated in the verbal mode.
Characterization of how Visual's Affordances Sustain Legitimacy Claims.
The way images are presented is also important in the visual claiming of legitimacy. Photos are “made” and not “taken” (Shortt & Warren, 2019; Warren, 2002). Photos might depict generic situations that are intended to establish relations with the field, subtly drawing others into the new organization communication, or can offer particular gazes intended to focus the attention of the viewers, and by consequence, steer them into taking into consideration concrete situations deemed as important to legitimation.
Importantly, this study additionally allows us to understand that the employment of visuals in legitimation is not constrained by the options to supplement, complement, or juxtapose the meanings expressed in the verbal mode of communication (Schriver, 1997; Zamparini & Lurati, 2017). Rather, the specific potentials of the visual as a mode of communication enable to express legitimacy claims that might not be fully articulated verbally, as discussed. This opens possibilities of expression, namely with the use of different cultural resources (Lounsbury & Glynn, 2001).
All in all, images do have affordances that set them apart from other modes of communication and this study contributes to revealing that the purposive use of visuals offers particular ways to pursue legitimacy, regardless of the verbal strategies employed. Entrepreneurs can thus consider employing visuals in a strategic way to emphasize both their distinctiveness, offering visuals proofs of their claims, and well as their conformity to the field, which is essential in legitimacy. Conformity, as this study shows, can be claimed implicitly with visuals. Thus the pursuit of “legitimate distinctiveness” (Navis & Glynn, 2011; Voronov et al., 2013) should be considered within the specific potentials of visuals.
Conclusions
This research empirically advances our understanding of how legitimation is discursively claimed. It reveals that the affordances of the visual mode of communication are especially well suited to sustaining particular ways of claiming legitimacy. By building on the potential of visuals to communicate implicitly, legitimacy claims can use allusion and there is no need to use logical conjunctions and linear argumentation structures. Thus, these claims may influence by resonating with audiences’ understandings and expectations.
In a different vein, it also proposed that the aptitude of visuals to demonstrate verisimilitude with some reality is particularly relevant to sustaining legitimacy claims. Visuals offer the potential to provide proof, which is highly relevant in the pursuit of legitimacy. These findings expand current understandings on legitimation and offer a nuanced view on how legitimacy may be discursively pursued with visuals.
Limitations and Future Research
The findings of this research are limited due to the single-case study design. However, the insights discussed permit “logical generalization” to other cases (Miles & Huberman, 1994, p. 28) and reveal perspectives that can be used as sensitizing lenses in further inquiries. In terms of future research, I deem it relevant to continue addressing the two visual affordances identified, and possibly to explore others, with the development of more empirical studies.
As Vaara and Monin (2010) have emphasized, there is recursiveness between action and discourse. Legitimation must be grounded in the particular material reality of organizations and this limits greatly how discourses of legitimation can be crafted (Vaara & Monin, 2010). In particular, more studies are needed that problematize the assumption that the consequences of new ventures’ legitimation are essentially positive (see Überbacher, 2014). What is entailed in ventures’ products R&D, management, and promotion, for example, has to be carefully managed. This is to ensure that resource consumption does not overtake the new resources that may be gathered through convincing audiences that the organization is legitimate.
Given the immediacy of visuals, these can attract the attention of legitimation audiences and become more easily noticeable, serving as an entry point into the broader arguments and claims being made in the verbal mode. Furthermore, photos can engage legitimation audiences affectively and emotionally and may even be more persuasive and powerful than explicit argumentation (Hill, 2004; Höllerer et al., 2013; Meyer et al., 2013; Sillince, 1999). More research is needed on these topics.
Finally, it is important to recognize that between the typicality of the two distinct ways of employing visuals to strive for legitimacy that is proposed in this study, there are certainly other alternatives, and future studies should explore these.
Footnotes
Appendix A. Empirical Excerpts Sustaining Lovia's Verbal Discursive Strategies
Empirical excerpts
What are the legitimacy claims conveyed
Legitimation discursive strategy
Using excess garments recycled from households guarantees a longer life cycle for a cloth that has once been found useless.
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It is better to use sustainable materials like we are doing.
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Moralization
Fish leather, in general, is a sustainable and durable material that can be used in upholstery, accessories, and clothing.
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In addition to the versatility of his profession, Tero finds metal as a substance very fascinating. “If something goes wrong, you can remelt the metal and start over. In that sense metals fit the idea of recycling: you can use them over and over again.”
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What is more, Finnsheep leather is a sustainable alternative for anyone wondering about the ethics of leather production. Finland's own sheep breed is a healthy landrace that wanders in large pastures even as conserving natural biodiversity.
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At Texvex, textile sorting is part of workshop activities for unemployed youth. “We are not just sorting clothes. We talk a lot about values with the youngsters and share thoughts on the stories we hear from the people bringing in clothes. I have witnessed them discover new meanings in life”… (…) These education programs help around 30,000 children, youngsters, adults, and educators learn about reducing waste and sustainable consumption.
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We are doing good with our choices of ethical suppliers. We are doing the right thing.
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Organic production methods also improve the living conditions for the locals.
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However, burbot leather is a rarity, with the means and skills for refining it almost becoming extinct. By reintroducing burbot to the fashion industry, we are taking steps toward bringing this Finnish tradition back to life.
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Sustainability. Elegance beyond surface signifies to us durable designs, sustainable materials, and producing our products as near as possible with the respect to nature and human rights. We aim to apply these principles to the entire production chain.
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We strive for being sustainable, we are ethical, and others are not.
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Actually… I think we came to the conclusion that it all started from… an ideology. So, there was an ideology how to kind of… reduce waste and do things ethically. (…) First was the ideology, and then we thought of the materials that could support the ideology and then, thinking about what kinds of products could you actually make from the materials. Other firms do not take this approach and are not really sustainable and ethical.
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Textile Recycling Centre Texvex is one of the institutions that aims to enhance textile recycling by recategorizing and selling them further. There are three recently opened Texvex centers in Finland and more coming soon.
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We are transparent: here is one of our partners that follows sustainable practices.
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Exemplification
Seidentraum is a German start-up founded in 2011 that distributes sustainable textiles. Seidentraum supplies its silk through a project that was initiated to restore sustainability in silk production. The project SABA is a Swiss–Chinese joint venture of the company Alkena.
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Located in the town of Kruunupyy on the Gulf of Bothnia, Ahlskog leather tannery has almost 100 years of experience in producing sheep leather. (…)
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After the course, Kumpulainen decided that he must learn how to refine fish leather as beautiful as he had seen in Helsinki. In 2007, he opened a small fish leather business and is now one of the few fish leather professionals in Finland.
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Pure Waste Textiles is a Finnish start-up that has won several awards in the fashion scene. One of them was the Finnish fashion act 2013 for developing textile waste into an innovation.
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Tuomas Mattila and Viivi Soimes run the Kalliomäki sheep farm.
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… And, they contacted us earlier and they have this excess leftover leather… so we can use it in the small pieces… for us. So, now we are taking it to our production line, and then there is elk skin, it comes from the Kokkolan Nahka and we have used their deer leather.
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Tero founded his company AU3 Design in 2003.
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We are transparent: here is one of our partners.
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Welcome to a perfectionist's atelier, where a pinch of creativity hovers above accurately measured mannequin torsos. “I want clothes to have an optimal fit as well as well-thought details,” says Suvi Hänninen, the perfectionist.
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Noora Oksanen has been a key figure in transferring the designer's sketches into physical objects. She has been creating the base of Lovia patterns.
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Lovia's patterns are graded into different sizes by Iti Tigas at her Helsinki-based company called Fashion patterns.
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Ahlskog leather tannery has almost 100 years of experience in producing sheep leather. Since 1920s they have attracted some of the world-famous fashion houses such as Gucci and Prada as customers.
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Our suppliers are proper professionals that work with known companies.
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First, this was just an image in our designer Outi's mind but soon it developed into the starting point for Lovia.
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We are authentic and transparent: here you have our names.
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Old leather jackets and other garments have been carefully selected by our partners at recycling centers and lastly approved by our designer Outi. Cut in smaller pieces and stripes recycled leather is a perfect material for Lovia's weave designs.
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The sustainable materials we use are a perfect fit for our designs.
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Naturalization
And then, Outi wanted to invite everyone else along. She had met Tiina through mutual colleagues some years back. Without knowing, they had walked through similar paths behind the scenes of fashion industry and lightly dreamed about starting “something own”. (…)
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The founders of Lovia came together effortlessly.
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I just applied and get in, and there I had a chance to develop the idea of a real company. So it was, kind of accident that this all happened, for real. There I met Anniina actually, and then Tiina, our third partner.
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Moreover, organic silk does not contain any residues from artificial fertilizers, pesticides, or growth-enhancing substances and organic production meets the requirements for “controlled biological production” (kbT).
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Being sustainable is an option that is reasoned; we are sustainable by working with sustainable suppliers.
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Rationalization
According to the European Union's best available techniques, producing 1 ton of leather should not consume more than 25 tons of water. With this in mind, Ahlskog has managed to lower water consumption to 12 tons of water per 1 ton of leather.
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Traditional industrial clothing manufacturing generates large amounts of textile waste which end up in landfills. During cutting processes, up to 15% of fabrics intended for clothing are wasted and only a minuscule amount is reutilized. (…)
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… when you buy a T-shirt, they spend 2,000 liters of water making that T-shirt… (…) Pure Waste is our supplier. So if you buy a recycled one, it is much better even if you pay more…
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Imagine a situation in which Aino, a blond damsel in the Finnish national epic Kalevala, a city yogi, a Viking matriarch, a Victorian-era beauty, and an eccentric shaman meet at a dimly lit dinner table. First, this was just an image in our designer Outi's mind but soon it developed into the starting point for Lovia. And then, Outi wanted to invite everyone else along. She had met Tiina through mutual colleagues some years back. Without knowing, they had walked through similar paths behind the scenes of fashion industry and lightly dreamed about starting “something own”. (…) Almost meanwhile, Anniina, a journalist with a mission to bring business world closer to everyday people, was invited to join the dinner. Outi had a feeling that she would bring some unexpectable dessert recipes along. Yes, we do believe that we have started a long-term adventure together.
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We are genuine.
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Narrativization
Appendix B. Additional Visual Empirical Instances That Sustain the Legitimation Claims and Strategies Displayed in Figure 2
Empirical instances
Legitimation claims
We work professionally
We are invited to showcase in important events
We collaborate with proper industry actors
Appendix C. Verbal Texts That are Presented With the Empirical Instances Displayed in Figure 1
Empirical instances
Verbal texts
There is no muse such as an artist! Lovia will transform both into a muse and an artist for the slowly arising spring. Here is a glimpse into the inspiration behind Lovia's next collection.
loviacollection Creating the world of #bringbackthemuse collection #loviacollection
Lovia at Kota sustainable fashion awards in New York City.
Last week, Lovia showcased Riitti SS16 Collection in New York at Kota Sustainable Fashion Awards, a fashion show that celebrated fashion for good. The event benefitted the Kota Alliance—a nonprofit promoting gender equality and women empowerment—aiming to build a World Center for Women in the city, to promote collaboration between organizations whose mission is to realize gender equality and women's empowerment.
Appendix D. Additional Visual Empirical Instances That Sustain the Legitimation Claims and Strategies Displayed in Figure 2
Empirical instances
Legitimation claims
We partner up with a network of ethical suppliers
Our suppliers are artisans
We are sustainable: we use recycled materials
We are genuine
Appendix E. Verbal Texts That are Presented With the Empirical Instances Displayed in Figure 2.
Empirical instances
Verbal texts
DNA OF LOVIA PRODUCTS
As transparency is one of the core values of Lovia, the product DNA was created to provide you with information about our production chain. Scroll down to learn more about the materials and their suppliers, production, and makers of our products.
LINDA LEATHER FACTORY
When stepping into the building the first sensation taking over you is surprise. Is this a factory? Second comes a warm wave of delight. No, this is not a factory in the sense we are used to seeing in pictures.
For quite a while, we were chasing for a manufacturer for our bags and purses in Finland until we finally found one that wanted to meet us. It turned out that our designs were too challenging for them to manufacture.
So, we turned our heads to our neighbor Estonia where textile industry is still vital, more accurately to the outskirts of Tallinn where leather factory Linda is located.
Bearing an almost century-long history, Linda has undergone several shifts and changes. Linda was established as a leather tanning factory under the Soviet era in 1920. The enterprise became famous for its gloves which were made by a former student of the personal glove master of the last empress of Russia, Alexandra Feodorovna.
At Linda, everything is made by hand. Nowadays Linda employs around 20 tailors and seamstresses with special expertise in fur and leather.
One of the experts is Eeva Ojamets. She was only 18 years old as she started her career as a seamstress at Linda in 1972. Back then, Linda was a huge corporation that engaged around 2,500 professionals.
(…)
Linda works in tight collaboration with local learning institutions for garment production. Teachers of the industry come to exchange ideas and students to study their profession in practice.
Compared to Finland minimum wages in Estonia are low, only 365 euros a month. Seamstresses at Linda earn around 700–800 euros per month on average.
Goldsmith Tero Hannonen
In the second meeting with goldsmith Tero Hannonen Lovia's designer, Outi pulled a cone out of her purse. For Tero, it was more or less a regular day. It is usual that something unusual comes up.
Tero founded his company AU3 Design in 2003. Smoothly, he turns from a 3D visualizer into a chemist, then works some hours as a machinist before running to his store to help a customer choose a ring worth 10,000 euros.
Tero creates the logo and jewel puller for Lovia bags and purses.
In addition to the versatility of his profession, Tero finds metal as a substance very fascinating.
“If something goes wrong, you can remelt the metal and start over. In that sense metals fit the idea of recycling: you can use them over and over again.”
“Brass is a resilient and smooth material, so it doesn’t have to be melted and cast as noble metals. It has been pressed with 200 tons of weight into its model and then cut and polished by hand.”
DNA OF LOVIA PRODUCTS
As transparency is one of the core values of Lovia, the product DNA was created to provide you with information about our production chain. Scroll down to learn more about the materials and their suppliers, production, and makers of our products.
AT TEXVEX HISTORIES ARE EXCHANGED
Textile Recycling Centre Texvex is one of the institutions that aims to enhance textile recycling by recategorizing and selling them further. There are three recently opened Texvex centers in Finland and more coming soon.
Lovia sources its recycled materials mainly from Texvex Forssa which recycles four tons of textile a month on average. What makes Texvex Forssa special is that there is no faceless box to just drop the textiles into. That is why the stories entwined in the garments have a chance to stay alive.
(…)
Because of all the different bits, pieces, and buttons, automating textile recycling is challenging. Being so, it is best done by hand. At Texvex, textile sorting is part of workshop activities for unemployed youth.
“We are not just sorting clothes. We talk a lot about values with the youngsters and share thoughts on the stories we hear from the people bringing in clothes. I have witnessed them discover new meanings in life”, Käppi explains.
(…)
These education programs help around 30,000 children, youngsters, adults, and educators learn about reducing waste and sustainable consumption.
The reuse center is also a social enterprise and offers work to a variety of different social groups such as disabled people, the long-term unemployed, Finnish language students, on-the-job trainees, and people performing community service.
We source especially vintage fur and some other recycled materials from the Helsinki Metropolitan area reuse center.
Imagine a situation in which Aino, a blond damsel in the Finnish national epic Kalevala, a city yogi, a Viking matriarch, a Victorian-era beauty, and an eccentric shaman meet at a dimly lit dinner table. First, this was just an image in our designer Outi's mind but soon it developed into the starting point for Lovia.
And then, Outi wanted to invite everyone else along. She had met Tiina through mutual colleagues some years back. Without knowing, they had walked through similar paths behind the scenes of fashion industry and lightly dreamed about starting “something own.” As Outi started sketching the starters in a conversation with her, Tiina was instantly ready to set the table.
Almost meanwhile, Anniina, a journalist with a mission to bring business world closer to everyday people, was invited to join the dinner. Outi had a feeling that she would bring some unexpectable dessert recipes along.
Yes, we do believe that we have started a long-term adventure together. And luckily, we share it in great company with many others too. If the Viking matriarch refrains from giving out any tips on where to head next, we can always ask the shaman sitting next to her.
Acknowledgments
I am indebted to Eero Vaara, Henri Schildt, Nina Granqvist, Janne Tiennari, Toni-Matti Karjalainen, and Eleanor Westney for their developmental comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. Also, I would like to acknowledge the useful comments received at research seminars at Aalto University School of Business (Finland) and the paper development workshop on multimodal research in organization and management studies at the 32nd EGOS Colloquium in Naples, chaired by Dennis Jancsary and Eva Boxenbaum.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the European Commission’s Marie Curie Actions (FP7) through the project DESMA (grant number 290137).
