TY - JOUR T1 - Resolving Legitimacy Deficits in Technology Startups through Professional Services Practices JF - Technology Innovation Management Review Y1 - 2014 A1 - Jay Payette KW - entrepreneurship KW - impression of viability KW - legitimacy KW - new ventures KW - operational verification KW - organizational legitimacy KW - pragmatic legitimacy KW - pragmatic validation KW - professional services KW - technology startups KW - viability AB - As new ventures, technology startups face a key challenge that is specifically associated with their young age: a perceived lack of organizational legitimacy. Organizational legitimacy is an important factor in the growth and survival of new ventures and is therefore an important issue for managers and entrepreneurs to address. Although there are many different typologies for defining types of organizational legitimacy, this article argues that technology startups should focus on developing external pragmatic legitimacy as a means of acquiring the resources required to grow and thrive. However, despite the many ways by which an organization can develop external pragmatic legitimacy, few are well suited to technology startups. Based on a review of the different types of organizational legitimacy and an assessment of their applicability to the context of technology startups, this article recommends that technology entrepreneurs should consider the creation of professional services practices to help develop external pragmatic legitimacy and overcome the “liability of newness”. PB - Talent First Network CY - Ottawa VL - 4 UR - http://timreview.ca/article/801 IS - 6 U1 - Carleton University Jay Payette is a graduate student in the Master of Design program at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and he is Managing Principal of Payette Consulting. Jay founded Payette Consulting in 2011 to help clients balance the consistent results of repeatable business processes and analytic decision making, with the fuzzy world of creativity. His research has focused on applying design-thinking principles to business model generation, strategy, and project delivery. Prior to founding Payette Consulting, Jay worked for the Canadian consulting practice of Accenture and as an independent IT Project Manager. ER -