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  • September 2017
  • Article
  • Academy of Management Discoveries

The Advocacy Trap: When Legitimacy Building Inhibits Organizational Learning

By: Tiona Zuzul and Amy C. Edmondson
  • Format:Electronic
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Abstract

This paper describes a relationship between legitimacy building and learning for a new firm in a nascent industry. Through a longitudinal study of a new firm in the nascent smart city industry, we found that the firm failed to make progress on important internal initiatives, despite notable external successes, including prestigious employees, well-known partner companies, and extensive positive media attention. Exploring these concurrent developments, we discovered a surprising relationship between the firm's external successes and its internal failures. We propose that the legitimacy building that helped the new firm establish external success gave rise to cognitive and emotional internal dynamics that inhibited organizational learning. We call this dynamic the advocacy trap. By suggesting a downside to legitimacy building and identifying a novel barrier to organizational learning—rooted in cognition and emotion, and especially salient in new firms and nascent industries—our discovery opens several new avenues for research in entrepreneurship and organizational learning.

Keywords

Organizational Learning; Advocacy; Organizations; Learning; Organizational Culture; Entrepreneurship

Citation

Zuzul, Tiona, and Amy C. Edmondson. "The Advocacy Trap: When Legitimacy Building Inhibits Organizational Learning." Academy of Management Discoveries 3, no. 3 (September 2017): 302–321.
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About The Authors

Tiona W. Zuzul

Strategy
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Amy C. Edmondson

Technology and Operations Management
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More from the Authors
  • Rethink Your Employee Value Proposition: Offer Your People More Than Just Flexibility By: Mark Mortensen and Amy C. Edmondson
  • How Do You Keep Winning? Strategy Across Technological and Industry Lifecycles By: Tiona Zuzul
  • Executive Decision-Making at Zola By: Amy C. Edmondson and Michael Roberto
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