Abstract: There is a deviation of entrepreneurs’ public morality and private morality, in which entrepreneurs invest unequal resource in public and private morality field. Through second data analyses and empirical tests, we demonstrate that entrepreneurs’ public morality deviations (public moral behavior is much better than private moral behavior) negatively influence consumers’ market legitimacy perception toward entrepreneurs because consumers perceive it doesn’t conform with the norm ‘Li’; while entrepreneurs’ private morality deviations (private moral behavior is much better than public moral behavior) can negatively influence consumers’ social legitimacy perception toward entrepreneurs because consumers perceive it doesn’t conform with the norm ‘Qing’. Moreover, companies can help attenuate the negative impact on entrepreneurs by choosing companies’ matching values. Specifically, for entrepreneurs’ public morality deviation behavior, companies may put forward value rationality to enhance consumers’ market legitimacy perception toward entrepreneurs; for entrepreneurs’ private morality deviation behavior, companies may put forward instrumental rationality to enhance consumers’ social legitimacy perception toward entrepreneurs.

Key words: Entrepreneur, Public morality, Private Morality, Deviations, Legitimacy