Legitimacy at the “Margins”: Promotional Strategies in the Canadian For-Profit College Sector

Oct 15, 2026

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The study examines how Canadian for-profit colleges (751 institutions) achieve legitimacy. Traditional sociology of education and organizations argues that legitimacy comes from conforming to norms, complying with government regulations, and emulating successful peers. The findings show an alternative logic: rather than isomorphic conformity, these organizations use promotional materials to pursue niche-seeking behavior, building unconventional identities by drawing on symbolic resources and industry affiliations, interpreted through organizational sociology theory.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Theoretical background: new institutionalism and legitimacy

Research focus and questions

Main findings and interpretation

CSSHE SCÉES Canadian Journal of Higher Education Revue canadienne d’enseignement supérieur Volume 48, No. 1, 2018, pages 60-81 Legitimacy at the “Margins”: Promotional Strategies in the Canadian For-Profit College Sector Roger Pizarro Milian University of Toronto Abstract Conventional scholarship within the sociology of education and organizations posits that schools achieve legitimacy by virtue of conforming to normative standards, abiding by government regulations and mimicking the forms of successful peers. Through this study, an examination of a sample of 751 Canadian for-profit colleges (FPCs) is performed, revealing the presence of an alternative logic. Rather than conformity, organizations within this sector engage in niche-seeking behaviour, using promotional materials to carve out unconventional identities. They do so by directly drawing on symbolic resources and affiliations from the industrial sectors which they service. These findings are interpreted through the prism of contemporary theorizing within organizational sociology. Résumé La recherche conventionnelle dans la sociologie de l’éducation et celle des organisations postule que les écolesacquièrentune légitimité ense conformant aux standards normatifs, en suivants les règlements gouvernementaux et enimitant les méthodes de leur pairs réussies. Dans le cadre de cette étude, j’examine le matériel promotionneld’un prélèvement de 751 collèges canadiens à but non lucratif (FPC: Canadian for-profit colleges) qui fonctionnent selonune méthode divergente. Plutôt de se conformer à un standard fixe, les organisations dans ce secteur s’engagent dans la recherche pour localiser deschamps « niche » en utilisant du matériel promotionnel pour démarquer desidentités non conventionnelles. Ils le font en s’appuyant sur des ressources symboliques et des affiliations des secteurs industriels qu’ils servent. J’interprète ces résultats à travers le prisme de théorie contemporaine dans le cadre de la sociologie organisationnelle. CJHE / RCES Volume 48, No. 1, 2018 Legitimacy at the “Margins” / R. P. Milian 61 Introduction Traditional theorizing within the sociology of education and organizations (e.g., Meyer & Rowan, 1977, 1978) posits that schools acquire legitimacy via conformity. This entails abiding by established field norms, following government regulations, and emulating the practices of what are considered successful peers (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983) . This logic, part of a broader perspective dubbed the “New Institutionalism”(Selznick, 1996), hypothesizes that the pursuit of legitimacy prompts organizational populations to become progressively “isomorphic” over time, as they strive to develop ideal-typical forms. In post-secondary education (PSE), one of the primary ways in which this plays out is through the emulation of highly selective and research-intensive elites, such as the American “Ivy Leagues” or the British “Oxbridge”(Brint, Riddle, & Hanneman, 2006; Sauder & Espeland, 2009) . Despite achieving widespread popularity across multiple fields (see Stevens, Armstrong, & Arum, 2008; Scott, 2010), critics have persuasively argued that traditional New Institutionalism does not adequately explain the behaviour of lower-status actors (Davies & Pizarro Milian, 2016; Davies & Quirke, 2007; Han, 1994; Levy, 2004, 2006; Philips & Zuckerman, 2001, 2013). Within the field of education, such organizations have repeatedly been shown to eschew longstanding field norms, adopting far more specialized, vocationally oriented, and “no frills” forms than their higher-status counterparts (Brint & Karabel, 1991; Pizarro Milian & Quirke, 2017) . Despite providing sound criticisms of the New Institutionalist perspective, and more specifically, its logic of isomorphism, few researchers have ventured to analyze the alternative strategies used by low-status educational organizations to achieve legitimacy. Little effort has been devoted to empirically mapping how these

FAQs

What does traditional New Institutionalism say about how schools gain legitimacy?

It argues that schools become legitimate by conforming to field norms, following government regulations, and emulating successful peers, leading over time to isomorphic organizational forms.

What alternative logic does the study find in the Canadian for-profit college sector?

The sector shows niche-seeking behavior, where organizations use promotional materials to develop unconventional identities instead of mimicking elite peers.

How do the colleges legitimize their distinctive forms according to the findings?

They legitimate themselves primarily through connections to industry and linkages to “legitimacy providers,” drawing on symbolic resources from the industries they serve.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Muffet