Achieving cultural resonance: Four strategies toward rallying support for entrepreneurial endeavors

Abstract

Research Summary We theorize the strategies that entrepreneurial actors employ to instill their endeavors with culturally resonant meanings and rally the support of key audiences (investors, analysts, or customers). In extant cultural entrepreneurship research, endeavors are assumed to achieve resonance and gain support when actors deploy the culture they share with their targeted audiences. But what if actors and audiences hold cultural repertoires that poorly overlap? We consider actors' efforts to “mobilize” and “enrich” the repertoires of both parties. Specifically, we introduce a typology identifying four strategies: anchoring, retooling, channeling, and seeding. Viewing culture as an engine of stability and change, we contend that each strategy addresses a distinct tension that actors must skillfully balance. We develop propositions to explain how and when actors manage these tensions. Managerial Summary Entrepreneurs must explain their endeavors in terms that audiences (investors, analysts, or customers) will understand and value. We know that entrepreneurs do so by telling stories and performing other symbolic actions, or by revising their stories and actions. However, prior insights assume a preexisting fit between what entrepreneurs and audiences value. How is this fit created? We identify four strategies by which entrepreneurs leverage a preexisting fit, and foster greater fit. We explain how entrepreneurs leverage a preexisting fit by presenting endeavors in familiar terms, and guiding audiences' interpretations. We explain how entrepreneurs foster greater fit by learning what audiences value, and educating audiences about their endeavors' value. Considering the inherent tension that each strategy entails, we explain how and when entrepreneurs use these strategies.

Place in Entrepreneurial Storytelling: A Study of Cultural Entrepreneurship in a Deprived Context

“…Entrepreneur's trustworthiness. Our study highlighted the central need that entrepreneurs have to develop trust in deprived contexts, something that has been overlooked by the cultural entrepreneurship literature (e.g., Soublière and Lockwood, 2022). Instability and a lack of trust is more likely to be present in roaming, informal and opportunistic market trading that adorns urban centres (Khavul et al, 2009).…”

“…Much of the work falls under the umbrella of cultural entrepreneurship, a strand of research viewing culture as a rich and flexible "repertoire" of elements that entrepreneurs can use to gain the approval and support of key stakeholders through entrepreneurial storytelling Glynn, 2001, 2019;Garud et. al., 2014a;Soublière and Lockwood, 2022).…”

“…In this regard, entrepreneurial storytelling is central to legitimacy: narratives make the venture more understandable, demonstrate its compliance with institutional norms, elaborate its resources, and arouse excitement and other positive emotions among key stakeholders (Cornelissen and Clarke, 2010;Fisher, Neubert and Brunell, 2021;Garud, Schildt and Lant, 2014a;Zott and Huy, 2007). However, while the cultural entrepreneurship literature has focused on diverse cultural objects in entrepreneurs' sensemaking and entrepreneurial storytelling (Garud, Gehman and Giuliani, 2014b;Gehman and Soublière, 2017;Soublière and Lockwood, 2022), the narration of places has been largely neglected (Muñoz et al, 2021;Welter and Baker, 2021). Places, understood as locations, material entities, and signifiers of symbolic meaning (Gieryn, 2000) can feature in entrepreneurs' understanding of their own situations and their efforts to portray it to their stakeholders (Cornelissen and Clarke, 2010).…”

Building a bridge to the future: Prospective legitimation in nascent markets

“…For instance, metrics are critical for investors and analysts in nascent industries (Beunza & Garud, 2007; Shen et al, 2021), but they may matter less to the media or customers. Moreover, although investors and firms in our setting shared a strong desire for the outcome (i.e., profitability), the persuasiveness of prospective arguments may be reduced when an outcome is not commonly desired or shared by firms and stakeholders alike (Soublière & Lockwood, 2022). Future work could thus explore other nascent market elements and audiences to better understand when prospective legitimation is most effective.…”

Entrepreneurial framing: How category dynamics shape the effectiveness of linguistic frames

“…Indeed, exploratory accounts highlight how a category's salience often changes in nonlinear and idiosyncratic ways over time (Hsu & Grodal, 2021; Logue & Grimes, 2022). Among others, a market category may become more or less salient in the eyes of the general public—or specific audiences—due to the emergence or decline of other categories that directly compete for consumer attention with the focal category (Grodal et al, 2015; Suarez et al, 2015), due to changes in other categories that influence the focal category's perceived meaning and appeal (Hsu & Grodal, 2021; Lounsbury & Rao, 2004), due to shifts in audiences' norms, values, beliefs, and aspirations (Soublière & Lockwood, 2022), or certain high‐profile events that generate attention to the category (Pontikes & Barnett, 2017; Soublière & Gehman, 2020). Our subsequent theorizing is agnostic about the drivers that lead to changes in a market category's salience and rather focuses on how different levels of category salience will shape the effectiveness of social impact and innovativeness frames.…”