Abstract: Getting a clear understanding of how to successfully realize the multinational diffusion of standards has become an important and urgent practical and theoretical topic. However, unlike researches on the multinational diffusion of innovative technologies or business models, multinational diffusion of standards is faced with severe legitimacy challenge. The existing studies on standard diffusion analyze, mainly from the perspective of those who have accepted the standards, why the standards have to be accepted. Based on the comparative case study of the AACSB standard and the JCI standard, this paper puts forward a theoretical framework for the legitimacy acquisition of the multinational diffusion of standards, and points out that legitimacy strategy is important, but also important is the question of whom the legitimacy is obtained from and in what order; at the same time, the above three aspects are affected by the host country’s field characteristics at different stages and its own source country imprint. This paper expands and enriches the legitimacy theory and provides theoretical guidance for multinational diffusion of standards.

Key words: legitimacy theory, multinational diffusion, diffusion of standards, mature field