Legitimacy in co-creating tourism value through customer-to-customer (C2C) online travel communities

Figures & data

Table 1. Types of legitimacy.

Theoretical underpinning	Level and focus	Types of legitimacy	Conceptualisation/operationalising concept
Strategic perspective	Organisational actions	Substantive management	Legitimacy as a property of a business: structural attribute; individual-based
		Symbolic management
Institutional perspective	Organisational actions	Pragmatic
		Cognitive
		Moral
Discursive perspective	Stories; narratives	Authorisation	Legitimacy as socially constructed-continuous negotiations and ongoing deliberations; justifications based on discursive resources; collective-based; application of single/multiple legitimacy strategies
		Moralisation
		Normalisation
		Rationalisation
		Narrativisation
		Trustification
		Cognitive

(Elsbach, 1994; Hakala et al., 2017; Korkeamaki & Kohtamaki, 2020; Suchman, 1995; Vaara & Tienari, 2008; Van Leeuwen & Wodak, 1999; Vestergaard & Uldam, 2022).

Table 2. Themes for discursive legitimation strategies.

Themes	Sub-themes	Examples of Quotes
Authorisation	Personal	‘I suggest setting to download overnight when fewer users are active’ ‘I signed up today for Deliveroo Plus, which is a monthly membership. So that is an option’ ‘I have tried the cable but actually it is very similar speed with wifi – no major issues so far – touch good’ ‘They say you can run on it online, but I haven't been able to as you have to have at least 1 hand holding the bar. For me it's more like uphill active walking’
	Organisational	‘That should be on its way to the rightful owner now, we called the front desk’
	Governmental	‘I mean the government. these policies aren't random’
Rationalisation	Benefits	‘Also Park n Shop on Deliveroo is very fast!’
	Economic returns	‘If they lowered the price … the problem is that they can't charge the “normal” price when things become “normal”’
Trustification	Fairness	‘Just a small business with her mom so depends on how many you order, you can negotiate & pay her thru FPS or PayMe’ ‘The value is good per bottle’ ‘Free online yoga and barre classes over the next few days’
	Transparency	‘The front desk just admitted that the refrigerators are not cold enough to store food’ ‘They select smaller producers to offer smaller price’
Narrativisation	Prior experiences	‘My experience is they're generally in good spirits’
	Past stories	‘re pizza, my dad always had a story about when he was in the Canadian air force’
Normalisation	Ideal norms	‘I've been faithfully washing all the plastic containers that come w our meals … recycling … . these bogus oxo containers are not true biodegradable and can’t be recycled. In this case biodegradable means they will break into smaller pieces of *microplastic* so horrible for our environment’ ‘We've actually been limiting ourselves to only ordering in on weekends, because we'd probably get out of control otherwise’
	Past norms	‘The reception will remind you to put it out’ ‘Are we really supposed to let the ventilation and related light in the bathroom turned on at all times? hate sleeping with lights on’

Figure 1. Discursive legitimacy for co-creating online.

Figure 2. Discursive legitimacy for online customer to customer (C2C) online travel communities co-creation.

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