The Three Component Model of Entrepreneurial Story:The Exploration of Micro Structure of Cultural Entrepreneurship

Ni Ning, Li Zhaoyi

Foreign Economics & Management Vol. 38, Issue 11, pp. 58 - 70 (2016)  DOI:10.16538/j.cnki.fem.2016.11.005

Abstract

The proposal of cultural entrepreneurship theory is an important breakthrough lately in entrepreneurship research. The theory holds that the entrepreneurial performance in the start-up stage largely depends on the entrepreneurial story which is the most important mechanism to obtain organizational legitimacy. However, the theoretical research of the structure of entrepreneurial story is still in the early exploratory stage. Based on the literature review of the past 15 years, it puts forward a three component entrepreneurial story model (entrepreneurial identity explanation, legitimating identity intention and rhetoric application). It arrives at the main viewpoints as follows:firstly, the entrepreneurial story focuses on the explanation of entrepreneurial identity; secondly, the construction of the entrepreneurial identity in the story is based on both factual and non factual information; thirdly, the entrepreneurial story contains two kinds of expression intentions on entrepreneurial identity, namely the compliance of its identity and the distinctiveness of its identity; fourthly, in the entrepreneurial story, there are corresponding rhetorical strategies for these two kinds of expression intentions. The research results abovementioned promote the deeper and wider development of cultural entrepreneurship theory, extend our understanding of entrepreneurial storytelling, and build a solid foundation for more precise empirical research in the future. With the help of the three component model and related knowledge, entrepreneurship education practitioners will be more effective in guiding the prospective entrepreneurs to improve the entrepreneurial communication ability and entrepreneurial success rates.

Keywords

cultural entrepreneurship theory; entrepreneurial story; organizational legitimacy; entrepreneurial identity; rhetorical strategy