Contextualizing Entrepreneurial Legitimacy: The Interplay of Internal and External Social Representations

Entrepreneurial legitimacy has been described as a trigger of entrepreneurial career choice and motivation, meaning that the propensity of an individual to engage in an entrepreneurial career increases with the social legitimacy of the career. However, more than a predictor of entrepreneurial success, entrepreneurial legitimacy is a complex social construct that determines the diffusion of entrepreneurial culture in different countries. This article aims to contribute to contextualizing entrepreneurial legitimacy by acknowledging its social genesis and dynamics, and by showing the variety of social interactions that it encompasses. The article examines the discursive strategies that entrepreneurs use to gain legitimacy among their audiences, and studies the representations and expectations attached to the figure of the entrepreneur by current and aspiring students in a Master’s program in Entrepreneurship. We gather the views of three social groups that actively engage in the social construction of entrepreneurial legitimacy in order to identify their convergent and divergent social representations of what it means to “be an entrepreneur.” Based on a questionnaire survey of 529 French participants and on 30 qualitative interviews, we present and compare the social representations of French entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship held by SME entrepreneurs and current and potential students in a Master’s in entrepreneurship program. We found that entrepreneurial legitimacy is a collective outcome of various social representations circulating in the public space that affects entrepreneurs’ ability to develop their businesses and their identities, along with their willingness and capacity to promote the entrepreneurial spirit in society.