Based on institutional and resource-dependence perspectives, this article identified the research trends by using bibliometric analysis and explored whether and how legitimacy affects the enterprises' financial and non-financial performance by adopting a three-level random-effects meta-analytic model. A total of 15,696 observations included in 32 studies spanning 2004–2021 revealed a positive association between legitimacy and performance with a close to medium effect size. We found that enterprises in Asia and Africa were more inclined than those in North America and Europe to utilize legitimacy to direct performance. In addition, innovative industries and industries adopting innovative strategies significantly moderate the association between legitimacy and performance. Regarding different dimensions of legitimacy, the results demonstrated that general, regulatory, and environmental legitimacy play vital roles in moderating the legitimacy-performance relationship. This article is the first review to combine bibliometric analysis and meta-analysis to synthetically prove that legitimacy positively correlates with the performance of enterprises.

本文从制度和资源依赖的角度出发，通过文献计量分析识别研究趋势，并采用三水平随机效应荟萃分析模型探讨合法性是否以及如何影响企业的财务和非财务绩效。2004 年至 2021 年 32 项研究中总共包含 15,696 项观察结果，显示合法性与绩效之间存在正相关关系，且效应大小接近中等。我们发现，亚洲和非洲的企业比北美和欧洲的企业更倾向于利用合法性来指导绩效。此外，创新产业和采用创新战略的产业显着调节了合法性与绩效之间的关联。对于合法性的不同维度，结果表明，一般合法性、监管合法性和环境合法性在调节合法性与绩效关系中发挥着至关重要的作用。本文首次结合文献计量分析和荟萃分析来综合证明合法性与企业绩效正相关。