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.