News and Nuances of the Entrepreneurial Myth and Metaphor: Linguistic Games in Entrepreneurial Sense–Making and Sense–Giving

Abstract

This paper describes a social construction of entrepreneurship by exploring the constructionalist building blocks of communication, myth and metaphor presented in the Independent newspaper. We argue that the sensemaking role of figurative language is important because of the inherent problems in defining and describing the entrepreneurial phenomena. Myth and metaphor in newspapers create an entrepreneurial appreciation that helps define our understanding of the world around us. The content analysis of articles published in the Independent newspaper revealed images of male entrepreneurs as dynamic wolfish charmers, supernatural gurus, successful skyrockets or community saviours and corrupters. Finally, the paper relates the temporal construction of myth and metaphor to the dynamics of enterprise culture.

Hotel entrepreneurship in a turbulent environment

“…They are not perceived by the public as heroes, agents of change or warriors (Nicholson and Anderson, 2005). Instead, a broad cultural acceptance of entrepreneurs and enterprising behavior is missing.…”

Desconstrução do mito e sucessão do fundador em empresas familiares

“…Para que isso aconteça, a memória da empresa é criada por meio de rituais, arquivamentos e exposições de documentos de modo a manter vivo o mito fundador, transformando-o em uma figura de referência e modelo a ser seguido (L. Nicholson & Anderson, 2005).…”

The role of storyboards and scrapbooks in propagating entrepreneurial value in family business settings

“…Within the expanding field of entrepreneurship and family business research the related concepts of entrepreneurial narrative (Morrison, 2001;Smith, 2002: Down andRevley, 2004;Kontos, 2004;Nicholson and Anderson, 2005;Fillis, 2006;Down, 2006;Conway, 2007;Down and Warren, 2008;and Smith, 2009) and entrepreneurial biography (Jones and Conway, 2004;Goss, 2005;and Smith, 2005) are currently of interest. This expanding literature builds upon a growing appreciation of the importance of narrative mechanisms in propagating values associated with entrepreneurship and family business.…”