Engineering Legitimacy

Through the lens of the fashion industry, Iva Petkova explores not only how institutionalizedorganizations react and adapt to the rise of start-up outsiders, but also how these outside"disruptors" seek to cultivate legitimacy and win influence. In so doing, she reflects upon alongstanding question in the sociology of organizations and neo-institutional theory: How doinstitutionalized organizations in creative industries resolve the inherent conflict between artand commerce, particularly in a changing institutional environment? Engineering Legitimacyoutlines the processes through which e-commerce and social commerce companies in fashiondisturb and reconstruct the industry, crosscutting their technical field of expertise and lookingto legitimize their innovative practice in the institutionally elaborated field of fashion. Throughan analysis of the emerging culture of innovation collectively created by start-up outsiderdisruptors, this book contemplates how fashion-technology companies transform their moralnarratives into acceptable commercial practice, legitimating a model of profound institutionalchange over the digital operations of fashion companies.