Hardback
Narrative and Discursive Approaches in Entrepreneurship
A Second Movements in Entrepreneurship Book
9781843765899 Edward Elgar Publishing
This is the second volume in a mini-series on movements in entrepreneurship. It aims to forward the study of entrepreneurship by stimulating and exploring new ideas and research practices in relation to new themes, theories, methods, pragmatic stances and contexts. The book explores different experiences and accounts of entrepreneurship, as well as reflections on ‘story telling’ in entrepreneurship research, discursive studies, and debates on how to interpret narrative and discursive work.
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Critical Acclaim
Contributors
Contents
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Incorporating linguistic, cultural, and narrative turning points in the social sciences that have changed the way we think, study, analyse and practice research, this book demonstrates new ways of examining entrepreneurship as a societal phenomenon.
Following on from New Movements in Entrepreneurship, this is the second volume in a mini-series on movements in entrepreneurship. It aims to forward the study of entrepreneurship by stimulating and exploring new ideas and research practices in relation to new themes, theories, methods, pragmatic stances and contexts. The book explores different experiences and accounts of entrepreneurship, as well as reflections on ‘story telling’ in entrepreneurship research, discursive studies, and debates on how to interpret narrative and discursive work.
This fascinating book will provide students and researchers of entrepreneurship, business administration and management with inspiring empirical research, and valuable discussions on how to study and write (on) entrepreneurship.
Following on from New Movements in Entrepreneurship, this is the second volume in a mini-series on movements in entrepreneurship. It aims to forward the study of entrepreneurship by stimulating and exploring new ideas and research practices in relation to new themes, theories, methods, pragmatic stances and contexts. The book explores different experiences and accounts of entrepreneurship, as well as reflections on ‘story telling’ in entrepreneurship research, discursive studies, and debates on how to interpret narrative and discursive work.
This fascinating book will provide students and researchers of entrepreneurship, business administration and management with inspiring empirical research, and valuable discussions on how to study and write (on) entrepreneurship.
Critical Acclaim
‘. . . the four books comprising the series would certainly be a valuable addition to any entrepreneurship library. However, each book also stands alone as an individual purchase.’
– Lorraine Warren, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research
‘The book delivers what it promises: a map of the uses of narrative methods in entrepreneurship studies. It is both an interesting contribution to the field and an important methodological handbook for all entrepreneurship researchers who are thinking of adopting qualitative methods in their inquiries. However, it may also be read with advantage by other researchers using ethnography as their main methodological approach to social studies. . . The aim of the book is to show how narratives can enrich entrepreneurship
studies, a goal that in my opinion is aptly fulfilled.’
– Monika Kostera, Scandinavian Journal of Management
‘. . . the contributors in this text breathe fresh and imaginative linguistic resources and narrative/discursive frames of reference into the inquiry of entrepreneurial activities. The anecdote, the narrative, the metaphorical, the discursive and the dramaturgical are significant therefore, not only because they bring to the surface voices, emotions, processes and the relationality of (everyday) entrepreneurial activity that have possibly been previously silenced. But also, to paraphrase Steyaert, these approaches highlight the controversial and interactive aspects of the research process. . . The text is welcome because it treats narrative in a serious and scholarly way.’
– Denise Fletcher, International Small Business Journal
‘In their edited book Narrative and Discursive Approaches in Entrepreneurship, Daniel Hjorth and Chris Steyaert provide a fascinating glimpse into a perspective on entrepreneurship that will be enlightening for many readers. Entrepreneurship authors typically talk about theory, methods, and data as if a straight-forward linear process united them all, and making sense of entrepreneurship was simply a matter of knowing how to interpret one’s “findings”. By contrast, the authors in this volume propose narrative and discursive approaches in which the contributing authors emphasize rich description, reflexive conceptualization, and interpretations offered as part of the story itself. They draw upon an international set of cases, including Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Venezuela, and North America. The cases themselves make for fascinating reading, quite apart from what we learn about the difficulties of imposing a particular interpretation on a given story. For example, taxi drivers in Caracas, management consultants in Denmark, and women entrepreneurs in northern Norway all make for fascinating narratives from which to understand the entrepreneurial process. Unlike many edited books which have no “plot”, the editors have included opening and closing sections that link the chapters, offer alternative readings of them, and propose new and expansive ways of thinking about entrepreneurship.’
– Howard Aldrich, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, US
‘Daniel Hjorth and Chris Steyaert set out to advance the study of entrepreneurship by refocusing the lens of discovery from economics, management and marketing to other paradigmatic stances in social sciences and humanities like anthropology and literary studies. The result is a provocative collection of chapters that inspire the reader to consider and explore new ideas and research practice that incorporate both the context and place of entrepreneurship. From the perceptive insights of the editors to the rigorous and provocative discourse of the chapters and thoughtful responses in the conclusion emerges a story, in the best of storytelling tradition, about how a “linguistic turn” can rouse new insights. The editors ask, “how do these texts move you?” – they entice, provoke, challenge, stimulate and guide. Their implications should be far reaching and required reading for any student of the entrepreneurial phenomenon. The editors take us, indeed, to “unexplored destinations”.’
– Nancy M. Carter, University of St. Thomas, US
– Lorraine Warren, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research
‘The book delivers what it promises: a map of the uses of narrative methods in entrepreneurship studies. It is both an interesting contribution to the field and an important methodological handbook for all entrepreneurship researchers who are thinking of adopting qualitative methods in their inquiries. However, it may also be read with advantage by other researchers using ethnography as their main methodological approach to social studies. . . The aim of the book is to show how narratives can enrich entrepreneurship
studies, a goal that in my opinion is aptly fulfilled.’
– Monika Kostera, Scandinavian Journal of Management
‘. . . the contributors in this text breathe fresh and imaginative linguistic resources and narrative/discursive frames of reference into the inquiry of entrepreneurial activities. The anecdote, the narrative, the metaphorical, the discursive and the dramaturgical are significant therefore, not only because they bring to the surface voices, emotions, processes and the relationality of (everyday) entrepreneurial activity that have possibly been previously silenced. But also, to paraphrase Steyaert, these approaches highlight the controversial and interactive aspects of the research process. . . The text is welcome because it treats narrative in a serious and scholarly way.’
– Denise Fletcher, International Small Business Journal
‘In their edited book Narrative and Discursive Approaches in Entrepreneurship, Daniel Hjorth and Chris Steyaert provide a fascinating glimpse into a perspective on entrepreneurship that will be enlightening for many readers. Entrepreneurship authors typically talk about theory, methods, and data as if a straight-forward linear process united them all, and making sense of entrepreneurship was simply a matter of knowing how to interpret one’s “findings”. By contrast, the authors in this volume propose narrative and discursive approaches in which the contributing authors emphasize rich description, reflexive conceptualization, and interpretations offered as part of the story itself. They draw upon an international set of cases, including Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Venezuela, and North America. The cases themselves make for fascinating reading, quite apart from what we learn about the difficulties of imposing a particular interpretation on a given story. For example, taxi drivers in Caracas, management consultants in Denmark, and women entrepreneurs in northern Norway all make for fascinating narratives from which to understand the entrepreneurial process. Unlike many edited books which have no “plot”, the editors have included opening and closing sections that link the chapters, offer alternative readings of them, and propose new and expansive ways of thinking about entrepreneurship.’
– Howard Aldrich, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, US
‘Daniel Hjorth and Chris Steyaert set out to advance the study of entrepreneurship by refocusing the lens of discovery from economics, management and marketing to other paradigmatic stances in social sciences and humanities like anthropology and literary studies. The result is a provocative collection of chapters that inspire the reader to consider and explore new ideas and research practice that incorporate both the context and place of entrepreneurship. From the perceptive insights of the editors to the rigorous and provocative discourse of the chapters and thoughtful responses in the conclusion emerges a story, in the best of storytelling tradition, about how a “linguistic turn” can rouse new insights. The editors ask, “how do these texts move you?” – they entice, provoke, challenge, stimulate and guide. Their implications should be far reaching and required reading for any student of the entrepreneurial phenomenon. The editors take us, indeed, to “unexplored destinations”.’
– Nancy M. Carter, University of St. Thomas, US
Contributors
Contributors: A.R. Anderson, S. Boutaiba, K. Campbell, T. Damgaard, L. Foss, W.B. Gartner, D. Hjorth, D.-M. Hosking, J. Katz, K. Klyver, M. Lindh de Montoya, E. O’Connor, K. Pettersson, J. Piihl, A. Rehn, R. Smith, C. Steyaert, S. Taalas
Contents
Contents: Foreword Introduction 1. The Prosaics of Entrepreneurship 2. A Moment in Time 3. Driven Entrepreneurs: A Case Study of Taxi Owners in Caracas 4. ‘Going Against the Grain. . .’ Construction of Entrepreneurial Identity through Narratives 5. Storytelling to be Real: Narrative, Legitimacy Building and Venturing 6. The Devil is in the E-Tale: Forms and Structures in the Entrepreneurial Narratives 7. Crime and Assumptions in Entrepreneurship 8. The Dramas of Consulting and Counselling the Entrepreneur 9. Masculine Entrepreneurship – The Gnosjö Discourse in a Feminist Perspective 10. Quilting a Feminist Map to Guide the Study of Women Entrepreneurs 11. Towards Genealogic Storytelling in Entrepreneurship Readings 12. Reading the Storybook of Life: Telling the Right Story versus Telling the Story Rightly 13. The Edge Defines the (W)hole: Saying what Entrepreneurship is (Not) 14. Relational Constructionism and Entrepreneurship: Some Key Notes References Index
