Mapping legitimacy in the organization of fields: Semiotic systems and symbolic conversion

The plurality of principles of valuation is a recurrent feature of organizations, markets, and societies—from impact-focused companies to transitioning economies. Organizational theorists have long explored this phenomenon, focusing especially on those times when a new set of principles challenges and substitutes an old one. In some fields, however, the coexistence of competing principles of valuation is a necessary condition for the functioning of the field itself. Drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu and on insights from linguistic semiotics, this paper addresses a fundamental question of organizing: How do divergent principles of valuation coordinate and legitimately coexist in the same field? Answering this question, the paper introduces a model that operationalizes how different principles of valuation, through the adoption of a target field’s semiotic systems, symbolically align and thereby acquire a legitimate position in the field. The model is empirically illustrated using data from private and public financial support to musicians in the UK. Focusing on language as a semiotic system, the findings show how economic actors in cultural fields adopt the language of their cultural interlocutors, thereby conveying a commonality of goals. In particular, as fully legitimated participants, they not only use the dominant symbols of their target field’s culture to ensure its continuation, but also exogenous symbols that promote innovation and change in the field. The paper contributes to the research on organizing by introducing the notion and functioning of semiotic systems, unveiling the cultural role of economic actors, and presenting a model of symbolic legitimation that can be applied across fields and beyond linguistic semiotic systems.