Authority and legitimacy are key concepts in strategy. The authority of the strategist - in special the strategist of the big corporation - is based on the legitimate validity of his position, practices, and the type of knowledge he or she uses. The field of strategy provides bases of legitimacy for the authority of strategists and also is legitimated by strategists. These characteristics help explain the extraordinary territorial-international expansion of both big corporations and the field of strategy in the last decades and also why the authority of the strategist is being challenged in the age of globalization. Based on the work of Max Weber this article shows the importance of the territorial-international dimension of authority and legitimacy for both strategists and the field of strategy. The authors argue that the knowledge produced in US is problematic because it doesn't recognize power and political issues pointed out by Weber, nor the different types of strategists that are typical in emerging economies. The authors suggest in the end how and why the field of strategy in Brazil can help comprehend and construct legitimate authority of strategists in emerging economies.
Strategy; Legitimacy; Authority; Emerging Economies