10 Storytelling & Cultural Entrepreneurship

entrepreneurial strategies to promote new industry development

level of analysis → strategy

organizational → storytelling

intraindustry → imitation & collective action

interindustry → category creation

institutional → institutional entrepreneurship

entrepreneurial stategy: storytelling importance

stories provide accounts that explain, rationalize and promote a new venture to reduce uncertainty

entrepreneurial stategy: storytelling definition stories

narratives …

• with a clear temporal structure (beginning, middle, end)

• with transitions and event sequences propelled by plot lines and twists

• shaped by defining characters

entrepreneurial stategy: storytelling function

• making sense of an equivocal situation

• creating order and objectification

• reducing uncertainty

• building confidence that the enterprise can succeed

entrepreneurial stategy: storytelling requirements

stories have to…

• resonate with the target audience

• have a happy ending

process of cultural entrepreneurship

entrepreneurial stocks of resource capital & institional capital

↓

entrepreneurial stories

↓

entrepreuneurial identity and legitimacy

↓

capital acquisition

↓

wealth creation

cultural entrepreneurship entrepreneurial stocks of resource capital

• technological capital

• financial capital

• intellectual capital

• human capital

• social capital

cultural entrepreneurship entrepreneurial stocks of institutional capital

• industry legitmacy

• industry norm and rules

• industry infrastructure (e.g. labor, technology, economic opportunity, markets, competition)

cultural entrepreneurship entrepreneurial stories

• high emphasis on distinctiveness

  • high institutional legitimacy

  • competence-destroying invention

• low emphasis on distinctiveness

  • low institutional legitimacy

  • competence-enhancing invention

cultural entrepreneurship entrepreneurial identity and legitimacy

asset of new venture efficacy

cultural entrepreneurship capital acquisition

• resource capital

• institutional capital

cultural entrepreneurship wealth creation

• firm performance

• economic growth and development

definition legitimate distinctiveness

• legitimacy: is this venture a recognisable member of a known category?

• distinctiveness: does it differ enough from category peers to warrant attention?

legitimate distinctiveness argumentative tools

• analogy

• classification

• generalization

• cause

• sign

• authority/precedent

argumentative tool analogy

make a connection to a familiar case, help stakeholders understand by comparison

argumentative tool classification

place the venture under an accepted category, applying an established rule to it

argumentative tool generalization

move from observed cases or prototypes to a broader claim about likely future behavior

argumentative tool cause

explain how features of the venture will lead to expected outcomes

argumentative tool sign

treat visible features as evidence of a deeper quality or broader phenomenon

argumentative tool authority/precedent

rely on the endorsement or credibility of a trusted actor (including credible founders themselves)

entrepreneurial stategy: storytelling transformation over time

early stage: symbolic

• vision, possibility, distant future

• builds beliefs and attracts initial capital

later stage: substantive

• concrete, measurable, near-term

• defends legitimacy under scrutiny

entrepreneurial strategy: imitation and collective action parallel play

• ignoring large firms offering substitutes in established markets

• little concern with resemblimg or differentiating from peers in the nascent market

• borrowing as a form of bricolage (saving time and resources)

• aiming for business model in order to learn and progress

• testing, pausing and adjusting the model

entrepreneurial strategy: category creation radical innovations

• depend on social movement activists

• often mixing “hot causes” with “cool mobilization”

entrepreneurial strategy: institutional entrepreneurship creating an institution

1. naturalize the technology by embedding the technology in existing institutionalized practices

2. legitimate new users by creating new roles

3. institutionalize new technology by e.g. defining new terms

4. inscribe a new meaning in the technology by modifying existing institution

entrepreneurial strategy: institutional entrepreneurship creating the “Kodak moment”

1. embedding the technology into vacation

2. creating new roles by seperating photography from development

3. creating new institutions with “snapshots” and “albums”

4. modifying existing institutions by shifting quality criteria (convenience over quality) and giving new meanings (camera is “fun” and “essential”)