BeyondHomo Entrepreneurus: Judgment and the Theory of Cultural Entrepreneurship

Abstract

In this paper, we embrace the critique of the contemporary entrepreneurship literature offered by Foss, Klein, and Bjørnskov, and applaud their advance of the Judgment‐Based Approach (JBA) as a way to broaden our understanding of entrepreneurial processes by contextualizing entrepreneurial action. However, we believe that to attain the promise of the JBA, a broader inter‐disciplinary engagement beyond economics is required. Drawing on theory and arguments in the cultural entrepreneurship literature, we emphasize the fruitfulness of foregrounding the role of culture – a theoretical focus that is marginalized both in the mainstream entrepreneurship literature and in the JBA. We compare the JBA and the Theory of Cultural Entrepreneurship and outline how a wider inter‐disciplinary research agenda could be advanced in entrepreneurial studies.

Gaining Legitimacy by Being Different: Optimal Distinctiveness in Crowdfunding Platforms

“…Cultural entrepreneurship theory highlights the entrepreneurial story as a central antecedent of new ventures' legitimation and resource acquisition (Lounsbury, Gehman, & Ann Glynn, 2019;Lounsbury & Glynn, 2001;. Entrepreneurial story broadly refers to a purposefully crafted narrative about the venture.…”

Imagining Futures: Theorizing the Practical Knowledge of Future-making

“…However, the mundane discursive practices through which practitioners address practical challenges to create strategic accounts, visions, stories or fabulations are themselves not elaborated upon. Similarly, research on entrepreneurial rhetoric (van Werven, Bouwmeester, & Cornelissen, 2014), storytelling (Lounsbury, Gehman, & Glynn, 2019) and framing (Snihur, Thomas, Garud, & Phillips, 2021) largely considers the characteristics of successful communication towards legitimizing imagined futures, rather than the practices through which conjectures are developed by teams (and supporters). Hjorth (2013) makes progress in this direction by theorizing that the use of discursive practices is not simply as tools for communicating coherence and plausibility, but are themselves a form of creative expression.…”

The Complexities of New Venture Legitimacy

“…Hence, legitimation efforts are subject to internal and external recursive effects (Soublière & Gehman, 2019). Although there has always been a hint of recursion in the new venture legitimacy literature (e.g., Lounsbury, Gehman, & Glynn, 2019;Wry et al, 2011), only recently has it been made explicit.…”