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Sensegiving in entrepreneurial contexts : The use of metaphors in speech and gesture to gain and sustain support for novel business ventures

Author

Listed:
  • Joep P. Cornelissen

    (EM - EMLyon Business School)

  • Jean Clarke
  • Alan Cienki

Abstract

Gaining and sustaining support for novel ventures is a vital yet difficult entrepreneurial process. Previous research on this topic has generally focused on the social competence and social capital of those creating new ventures, and their ability to align their ventures, with collective norms of novel ventures as sensible, acceptable and legitimate. We suggest that sensegiving – the ability to communicate a meaningful course for a venture – to investors and employees may also play a direct role in achieving support for a venture. Based upon a micro-ethnographic study of two individuals who were in the process of creating new ventures, we demonstrate how they give sense, to others in real time that involve not just their speech but also their gestures. Overall, we find evidence that in the early stages of the commercialization of a venture, metaphors in both speech and gesture are consistently used to emphasize agency and control and the predictability and taken-for-grantedness of a novel venture.

Suggested Citation

  • Joep P. Cornelissen & Jean Clarke & Alan Cienki, 2012. "Sensegiving in entrepreneurial contexts : The use of metaphors in speech and gesture to gain and sustain support for novel business ventures," Post-Print hal-02312339, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02312339
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Yuliya Snihur & Llewellyn D. W. Thomas & Raghu Garud & Nelson Phillips, 2022. "Entrepreneurial Framing: A Literature Review and Future Research Directions," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 46(3), pages 578-606, May.
    2. Carlos Martin-Rios, 2016. "Innovative management control systems in knowledge work: a middle manager perspective," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 181-204, May.
    3. Mikhail Kosmynin & Elisabet Carine Ljunggren, 2023. "Tales of the Unexpected: The Repair Work of an Entrepreneurial Resourcing Practice and the Role of Emotions," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(6), pages 2347-2383, November.
    4. Richey, Michelle & Ravishankar, M.N., 2019. "The role of frames and cultural toolkits in establishing new connections for social media innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 325-333.
    5. Friederike Welter & Ted Baker & Katharine Wirsching, 2019. "Three waves and counting: the rising tide of contextualization in entrepreneurship research," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 319-330, February.
    6. David B. Audretsch & Antje Fiedler, 2023. "Power and entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 60(4), pages 1573-1592, April.
    7. Amira Laifi & Yabo Octave Niamié & Olivier Germain, 2023. "The Ignored Legitimation Paradox of Northern Technology-based New Ventures Encountering Southern Contexts: Case Study of a French e-Books Company," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 32(2_suppl), pages 159-183, November.
    8. Karin Kreutzer, 2022. "On the Discursive Construction of Social Entrepreneurship in Pitch Situations: The Intertextual Reproduction of Business and Social Discourse by Presenters and Their Audience," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(4), pages 1071-1090, September.
    9. Robert, Kihlberg & Ola, Lindberg, 2021. "Reflexive sensegiving: An open-ended process of influencing the sensemaking of others during organizational change," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 476-486.
    10. König, Andreas & Fehn, Angela & Puck, Jonas & Graf-Vlachy, Lorenz, 2017. "Primary or complex? Towards a theory of metaphorical strategy communication in MNCs," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 270-285.
    11. Harkonen, Janne & Haapasalo, Harri & Hanninen, Kai, 2015. "Productisation: A review and research agenda," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 65-82.
    12. Benson, David F. & Brau, James C. & Cicon, James & Ferris, Stephen P., 2015. "Strategically camouflaged corporate governance in IPOs: Entrepreneurial masking and impression management," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 839-864.
    13. Younger, Shannon & Fisher, Greg, 2020. "The exemplar enigma: New venture image formation in an emergent organizational category," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(1).
    14. Jean Clarke & Nicholas Llewellyn & Joep Cornelissen & Rowena Viney, 2021. "Gesture Analysis and Organizational Research," Post-Print hal-02299462, HAL.
    15. Werner Liebregts & Pourya Darnihamedani & Eric Postma & Martin Atzmueller, 2020. "The promise of social signal processing for research on decision-making in entrepreneurial contexts," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 589-605, October.
    16. Garcia-Lorenzo, Lucia & Donnelly, Paul & Sell-Trujillo, Lucia & Imas, J. Miguel, 2018. "Liminal entrepreneuring: the creative practices of nascent necessity entrepreneurs," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 85141, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Susan Marlow & Maura McAdam, 2015. "Incubation or Induction? Gendered Identity Work in the Context of Technology Business Incubation," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(4), pages 791-816, July.
    18. van Werven, Ruben & Bouwmeester, Onno & Cornelissen, Joep P., 2015. "The power of arguments: How entrepreneurs convince stakeholders of the legitimate distinctiveness of their ventures," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 616-631.
    19. Clarke, Jean & Holt, Robin, 2017. "Imagery of ad-venture: Understanding entrepreneurial identity through metaphor and drawing," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 476-497.
    20. Stratos Ramoglou & Stelios Zyglidopoulos, 2015. "The constructivist view of entrepreneurial opportunities: a critical analysis," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 71-78, January.
    21. Erik Lundmark & Anna Krzeminska & Dean A. Shepherd, 2019. "Images of Entrepreneurship: Exploring Root Metaphors and Expanding Upon Them," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(1), pages 138-170, January.

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