Mélissa Boudes, Laëtitia Lethielleux. Labour market social innovation in France gaining legitimacy through meta-organisations. Journal of Innovation Management, 2022, 10 (3), pp.26-45. ⟨10.24840/2183-0606_010.003_0002⟩.

Labour Market Intermediaries (LMIs) with a social purpose, or Labour Market Social Innovation, are bubbling since the 1980s due to the fragmentation of labour standards and the growing number of « non-standard forms of work ». However, they face an important lack of legitimacy especially in countries like France where labour market is highly regulated. Analysing the legitimation trajectories of two profit-limited LMIs, the Employers’ Associations and the Business and the Employment Cooperatives in France, we highlight the role of meta-organisations and some key factors of success and failure. Thus, this article presents some levers that social innovations can use through meta-organizations to gain different types of legitimacy.