Legitimizing and Delegitimizing Factors of Firms in Society: Is It a Problem of Communication or Strategic? An Approach Based on the Distributed Social Value as the Key Factor for the Organizations’ Social Legitimacy

There is an increasing concern about the value contributed by firms to the society as a whole. Transnational companies are particularly being questioned; therefore, legitimation for this kind of corporations is demanded. This chapter analyses four delegitimizing factors: negative added value, negative equity, tax evasion and moral hazard associated to potential situations of bankruptcy. Three legitimizing factors will also be analysed: added value distributed to stakeholders, value distributed by “non-market” mechanisms and emotional value generated to different stakeholders of the entity. Since the lack of legitimation affects large companies to a greater degree, two hypotheses related to the size of the firms have been tested. The first has to do with a larger presence of delegitimizing factors in large firms. The second analyses a smaller distribution in this sort of firms of value generated to stakeholders that are not shareholders assessed by means of the social efficiency ratio (SER). The obtained results allow for identifying whether the criticism towards large firms is supported by objective factors (confirmed hypothesis) or subjective ones (rejected hypothesis) and consequently whether the transnational companies should base their action plans of social legitimation on strategy or on communication.