A case study of the legitimation process undertaken to gain support for an information system in a Chinese university

Received: 14 May 2009 Revised: 18 January 2010 2nd Revision: 28 February 2011 3rd Revision: 19 May 2011 Accepted: 20 May 2011 Abstract This research examines the legitimation process that was undertaken to gain stakeholder support for the development of a smartcard system for student services at a local university in China. We employed a theoretical framework consisting of Suchman’s typology of legitimacy and the Legitimation Activity Model (LAM) for sense-making of the process. We obtained insights into how legitimation of the system was gained, maintained and repaired through the project team’s strategic actions. We conceptualized the rotation of legitimation gaining, maintaining and repairing activities in the project and make suggestions for improving the LAM. We emphasize that monitoring and evaluating legitimation is a dynamic, continuous process, involving the concept of legitimation status, and linking the planned actions of legitimationgaining and responsive actions for legitimation maintaining and repairing. We suggest that to achieve legitimation for information systems, managers should plan strategies to construct and present an appropriate image of the system, in which stakeholders perceive that it meets their needs, and, in addition, closely monitor the status of legitimation granted over a continuous period. This is because legitimation is a ‘fragile flower’ that may wilt if not attended to adequately. European Journal of Information Systems (2012) 21, 212–228. doi:10.1057/ejis.2011.27; published online 28 June 2011