We study the internationalization‐related legitimacy challenges of firms with disruptive business models by using a case comparison of leading sharing economy companies Airbnb and Uber. We show that they are insulated from many traditional legitimacy challenges to multinationals entering host markets, but exposed to others that have not been noted previously. Specifically, we identify a novel market‐entry legitimacy challenge, “liability of disruption,” which manifests as regulatory, incumbent business, and societal pushback against firms with disruptive business models. After presenting our cross‐case analysis, we theorize about the nature and impacts of these three distinct but interconnected forms of host country institutional pushback on firms’ ability to achieve and maintain legitimacy, and how they are driven by national governance characteristics.

中文翻译：

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破坏的责任

我们通过对领先共享经济公司Airbnb和Uber进行案例比较，研究了具有破坏性商业模式的公司在国际化方面的合法性挑战。我们表明，跨国公司进入东道国市场不受许多传统合法性挑战的影响，但是却暴露于以前未曾提及的其他挑战。具体而言，我们确定了一种新颖的市场进入合法性挑战，即“破坏的责任”，这表现为针对具有破坏性业务模式的公司的监管，现有业务和社会压力。在提出了跨案例分析之后，我们对东道国制度性退缩的这三种不同但相互联系的形式的性质和影响，对企业实现和维持合法性的能力进行了理论分析，