Legitimacy by association? How citizens form propriety beliefs through horizontal spillovers in public–private partnerships

Abstract

How do citizens form legitimacy judgments about public organizations involved in complex collaborations? This study explores propriety beliefs—citizens’ individual beliefs about the appropriateness and legitimacy of public organizations—as a micro-level component of organizational legitimacy. This question is relevant because legitimacy-as-perception research has largely overlooked how individuals form propriety beliefs in inter-organizational contexts. We address this research gap by theorizing and testing the horizontal legitimacy spillovers—a mechanism in which legitimacy judgments about one organization influence perceptions of another, connected organization. Using two pre-registered factorial survey experiments with German citizens (n = 2,510), we demonstrate that citizens draw on their propriety beliefs about a collaborating private partner when evaluating a public organization engaged in a public–private partnership. Our findings challenge the assumption that legitimacy judgments are made in isolation, showing instead that they are socially constructed through associative cognitive processes. These insights highlight how organizational legitimacy is shaped in networks and partnerships, underscoring the importance for public organizations to carefully consider potential legitimacy spillovers when entering collaborations with private actors.