The Ignored Legitimation Paradox of Northern Technology-based New Ventures Encountering Southern Contexts: Case Study of a French e-Books Company

Abstract

The contribution of Northern technologies to solving problems in the South is widely studied. However, the dissemination of these technologies in the South is rarely seen as a legitimacy issue. This paper aims to understand how the legitimacy of a new venture is created in an emerging field, considering the indeterminate and unstable nature of the entrepreneurial process. To explore this avenue, we conducted a qualitative study around a unique case: Cyberlibris, a young company operating in the field of e-books, an emerging field within the book industry in the early 2000s. This study suggests that the process of legitimation of a disruptive technology-based innovation carried out by a newcomer is constituted by a tangle of tests, a notion borrowed from pragmatic sociology, but tests change with respect to demands by African schools. First, we highlight three tests within the legitimacy process in the French context (revenue model, publisher conservatism and reading practice changes). These tests are experienced by adapting to the African context. We discuss the paradox between legitimacy and domination in technology appropriation processes.