Legitimacy based on diversity: A study of the U.S. animal welfare institution, 1865-2010

This study examines how persistent micro-level diversity develops field-level legitimacy of animal welfare institution. The present research proposes a new concept: institutional foci where individuals have a common definition and shared prescription for dealing with an issue. Using network analyses of U.S. animal lawsuits and event-history analyses of animal welfare law adoption from 1865 to 2010, this inductive study reveals that: 1) the persistence of micro-level diversity leads to cross-referencing among different institutional foci; 2) prevalent cross-referencing enables each focus to retain its heterogeneity and validity; 3) cross-referencing begets a transitive inter-focus network structure that furthers cross-referencing; 4) transitive cross-referencing networks contribute to field-level legitimacy development, measured by animal welfare law adoption. The study suggests that field-level legitimacy emerges even without neither convergence nor truce at the micro level.