In a competitive business world, brands and products are essential to a company's success and growth. It is important for any business that wants to succeed in international markets to understand how valuable these elements are and how to manage them effectively. Rebranding and product launch strategies emerge as tools for companies looking to stay ahead in the global marketplace. Rebranding helps companies maintain relevance in changing markets, while introducing new products is important for addressing shifting customer needs. However, both have significant risks and costs, as many rebranding efforts fail to resonate, and new products often struggle to gain market acceptance. Given the importance of these strategies, understanding how new brands and products gain legitimacy—particularly in international markets—is essential. This doctoral thesis explores the process of legitimation, which is crucial for acceptance among various stakeholders, and addresses the research question: “How do companies legitimize new brands and new products in international markets?”. To answer this main research question, this thesis focuses on five papers. Paper I provides a review of international branding literature, identifying research gaps and suggests scholars to explore branding dynamics in emerging markets and B2B contexts. Paper II focuses on the challenges of internal and external legitimation in the rebranding process in developed and emerging markets. Paper III identifies the brand knowledge dimensions that matter most to different stakeholders during the rebranding process. Paper IV examines the factors influencing new product launches across various institutional contexts, presenting a typology that highlights the roles of brand awareness and price sensitivity. Paper V focuses on the relationship between internal and external challenges in emerging markets, proposing strategies to address these challenges effectively. By integrating institutional and legitimation theories with rebranding and product launch strategies, the thesis offers insights and practical guidance for businesses operating in global markets. The findings help understanding the complexities of legitimation in different contexts and provide actionable strategies to enhance the acceptance of new brands and products internationally.

There has been a growing academic interest in applying legitimacy as a theoreticallens to investigate, analyze, and theorize the occurrence of various phenomena in the business managerial domain. Most studies have investigated the legitimationof newness in different aspects, such as new ventures and new products in variousinstitutional settings. However, studies have failed to sufficiently investigate coemergenceand legitimation of newness and how new products are legitimized indifferent uncertain environments.The study explores the legitimation of newness in gambling and life sciencescontexts. The reason for selecting these contexts is that they are highly regulated,as the services and products offered by firms in this sector pose different risks tothe end-users. Exploring the legitimation of newness in these two distinct contextsprovides insight into how various forms of newness are legitimized in differentenvironments. The study is then guided by the question: How are new products,ventures, and sectors legitimized in different institutional settings? In the gamblingcontext, the study investigates the co-emergence and co-legitimation of new firmsin transformed sectors. In the life science context, the focus is on legitimation ofnew products in different institutional settings. The study consists of five papers toaddress this question and is conducted qualitatively using single and multiple casestudies in the different contexts explored. The study manages to identify four formsof new venture and sector co-emergence: benign, supervenient, radical, andnominal. The findings suggest that leaders can apply feedback loops,conformance, familiar cues, and repetition and consistency strategies to legitimizethe co-emergence of newness during the edge of chaos. To legitimize new productsin different institutional settings, findings suggest that different legitimationstrategies are to be used when introducing new products in different markets. Emphasis is also placed on developing internal legitimacy before developingexternal legitimacy when launching new products in uncertain markets.