Creating legitimacy across international contexts: The role of storytelling for international new ventures

Abstract

This paper considers the legitimacy-creating efforts of Better Place, an international new venture (INV) providing infrastructure services linking electrical vehicles and power grid networks. We analyze the debate on Better Place's attempts to communicate its business idea to constituents in Denmark, Israel, Canada, and Australia using expert interviews as well as content analysis of newspaper articles and other secondary sources. Storytelling, which is found to be central to the legitimacy-creating efforts of international business ventures, interacts with existing discourses in the diverse contexts in which it occurs. Furthermore, our study demonstrates how constituents pick up specific J Int Entrep Summary highlightsContributions: Although research into the impact of institutions on international business is a topical research area, legitimacy-creating efforts in various institutional contexts have not been discussed in any great detail in the INV literature. We believe that this paper will close a gap in our current knowledge of INV launch and development.Research questions/purpose: How do national institutional contexts influence the storytelling efforts of new business ventures seeking to legitimate novel market offerings? We study the nationwide launch and storytelling efforts of an INV to better understand the interplay between the creation of business model legitimacy and institutional context. Results/findings: Our analysis of the Better Place case suggests that: (a) storytelling is a key part of the legitimacy-creating efforts of international new ventures and (b) storytelling must be adapted to the existing discourses in the contexts in which it is applied. Theoretical implications and recommendations: First, we have contributed conceptually by framing the issue of legitimacy creation through storytelling as a relevant subject of INV research. Second, we have advanced the field methodologically by grounding our research approach in a contextualist perspective and treating storytelling as a systemic impact of institutional contexts. Third, we have contributed empirically by providing insight into storytelling in a unique case of an INV and, not least, have advanced theoretical development by proposing co-narration as a useful concept for improving our understanding of how stories are adapted when INVs try to "talk their way" into legitimacy. Practical implications and recommendations: We think that these contributions are particularly relevant to managers. Increasing awareness and understanding of the configurational aspects of storytelling may increase managers' ability to create awareness and legitimacy among critical constituents in the market contexts they seek to enter.

The qualitative case research in international entrepreneurship: a state of the art and analysis

“…In addition, four out of five critical realist QCRs (e.g. Andersen and Rask, 2014) took advantage of the “explanatory” potential of QCRs by developing contextualized explanations of investigated phenomena. Interestingly, there was one realist QCR (Oxtorp, 2014) with the aim of theory building, which developed propositions for the implications of specific contexts such as organizational processes, rules and structures to dynamic managerial capability.…”

“…Importantly, four out of five studies received the interpretation or comments of informants on their findings. However, only one critical realist QCR (Andersen and Rask, 2014, p. 370) claimed the employment of retroduction logic that underpinned their analysis as a process “to trace specific conditions that either lead or have led to a given event.” Surprisingly, there was no IE QCR that involved empirical corroboration to demonstrate the workability and superiority of proposed generative mechanism (Wynn and Williams, 2012). Collectively, the analyses above suggest that quality criteria are contingent on philosophical assumptions rendering the notion of “good” QCR polysemous.…”

Business model design and performance in nascent markets

“…Storytelling might have added to this effect instead of supported the transition of the industry into a new dominant design. Earlier research has shown that NewInfra succeeded initially by crafting and disseminating their story (Andersen and Rask, 2014). The CEO was among others a keynote speaker at numerous conferences and exhibitions and storytelling was an important vehicle for creating partnerships (Günzel-Jensen and Rask, 2015).…”

What Happens when Companies (don’t) Do What they Said they would? Stock Market Reactions to Strategic Integrity

“…A related stream of literature emphasizes the role of discourse and of particular discursive strategies for building legitimacy (Phillips et al ., ; Vaara et al ., ; Vaara and Monin, ; Lefsrud and Meyer, ; Joutsenvirta and Vaara, ). Empirical research has found framing (Fiss and Zajac, ; Lefsrud and Meyer, ; Gray et al ., ), narratives (Golant and Sillince, ; Andersen and Rask, ), and tropes to influence legitimacy formation (Etzion and Ferraro, ). Cornelissen et al .…”

“…The emerging school of ‘rhetorical institutionalism’ suggests that communication plays a central role in the process through which economic actors establish and maintain legitimacy (Green and Li, ; Harmon et al ., ; Hoefer and Green, ). Building on the insight by institutional theorists that communication shapes legitimacy formation (Suddaby and Greenwood, ; Golant and Sillince, ; Suddaby, ), researchers have identified rhetorical strategies including framing (Gray et al ., ), narratives (Andersen and Rask, ) and tropes (Etzion and Ferraro, ) as means to establish perceived legitimacy (Bitektine and Haack, ).…”