Presentation at the Academy of Management Meetings 2 August 2014. Part of a Panel for a Professional Development Workshop on "Embracing Process in Entrepreneurship Research"

1. Embracing Process in
Entrepreneurship Research
(A Narrative Perspective)
William B. Gartner
Copenhagen Business School / California Lutheran University
wbg.mpp@cbs.dk / wgartner@callutheran.edu
Academy of Management, Entrepreneurship Division, PDW
August 2, 2014

2. “Lost”
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index/ind
ex.php?date=2006/01/11
“Lost” by David Wagoner from Collected Poems
1956-1976 © Indiana University Press.

3. Paying Attention to Entrepreneurial
Process
Arm Folding
http://www.slideshare.net/pwoessner/systems-
thinking-lli2012

4. Doing Things Differently
Is difficult…
So, how to develop routines for the “non-
routine”?

5. Or Not
What if the “non-routines” are routine?
What if difference is “no-difference?”
What assumptions are we making about:
entrepreneurs, environments, firms and
processes?

6. Yet why not say what happened?
Epilogue – Robert Lowell
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/17716
4

7. What is Narrative?
Narrative displays the goals and intentions of human
actors; it makes individuals, cultures, societies, and
historical epochs comprehensive as whole; it humanizes
time; it allows us to contemplate the effects of our
actions, and to alter the directions of our lives. Narrative
is everywhere; it is present in myth, fable, short story,
epic, history, tragedy, comedy, painting, dance, stained
glass windows, cinema, social histories, fairy tales, novels,
science schema, comic strips, conversation and journal
articles.
- (Richardson, 1990: 117)

8. What is Narrative?
“I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to
know why story truth is truer sometimes than
happening-truth. . . . What stories can do, I
guess, is make things present. . . [T]his is true:
stories can save us.”
—Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried

9. Methods in the Humanities
Men ask the way to Cold Mountain
Cold Mountain: there’s no through trail.
In summer, ice doesn’t melt
The rising sun blurs in swirling fog.
How did I make it?
My heart’s not the same as yours.
If your heart was like mine
You’d get it and be right here.
-- Han-Shan (Gary Snyder translator)

10. Methods in the Humanities
– Literary
– Historical
– Philosophical
– Aesthetic

11. Facebook
Mezrich, B. (2009). The Accidental Billionaires. New
York: Doubleday.
Fincher, D. (2010). The social network.[Movie] Directed
by D Fincher, screenplay by Sorkin, A. Columbia
Pictures/Sony Pictures International.

12. From Cliché to Insight
“We chase the interesting, which continually eludes us;
we are chased by boredom, which continually catches
us.”
Davis, M. S. (1999). Aphorisms and clichés: The
generation and dissipation of conceptual
charisma. Annual review of sociology, (25): 245-269.

13. An Idiosyncratic Entrepreneurial
Narrative Bibliography (The Forrest)
A philosophical basis for the intersection of narrative, process and
entrepreneurship
Helin, J., Hernes, T., Hjorth, D. and Holt, R. (2014). The Oxford Handbook of
Process Philosophy and Organization Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hjorth, D. (2014). Sketching a philosophy of entrepreneurship. In R. Welter &
T. Baker (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Entrepreneurship. New York:
Routledge, pp. 47-58.
Ricoeur, P. (1984). Time and Narrative. 3 vols. Trans. K. McLaughlin & D.
Pellauer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.
Vaihinger, H. (1935). The Philosophy of ‘As If’, Trans. CK Ogden, London: Kegan
Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.

14. An historical basis for the intersection of process and entrepreneurship
Bucheli, M. & Wadhwani, R. D. (2013). Organizations in Time: History, Theory,
Methods. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wadhwani, R. D. & Jones, G. (2013). Schumpeter's Plea: Historical Reasoning
in Entrepreneurship Research. In Bucheli, M. & Wadhwani, R. D. (Eds.)
Organizations in Time: History, Theory, Methods. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.

15. “Stuff” on Narrative
Alvesson M, Hardy C, and Herley B (2008) Reflecting on reflexivity: Reflexive
textual practices in organization and management theory. Journal of
Management Studies 45: 480–501.
Bamberg M (2007) Narrative: State of the Art. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Boje D. M. (2001) Narrative Methods for Organizational and Communication
Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Brown AD (2006) A narrative approach to collective identities. Journal of
Management Studies. 43: 731–753.

16. Bruner, J. (1986). Actual Minds, Possible Worlds. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.
Chen X, Yao X, and Kotha S (2009) Entrepreneur passion and
preparedness in business plan presentations: A persuasion analysis of
venture capitalists’ funding decisions. Academy of Management
Journal 52: 199–214.
Clandinin DJ (2007) Handbook of Narrative Inquiry: Mapping a
Methodology. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Czarniawska, B., (1997). A four times told tale: combining narrative and
scientific knowledge in organization studies. Organization 4 (1), 7–30.

17. Czarniawska B (1999) Writing Management: Organization Theory as a
Literary Genre. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Downing S (2005) The social construction of entrepreneurship:
Narrative and dramatic processes in the coproduction of organizations
and identities. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 29: 185–204.
Elliott J (2005) Using Narrative in Social Research: Qualitative and
Quantitative Approaches. London: SAGE.
Ellis, C. S. & Bochner, A. P. (2006). Analyzing Analytic Autoethnography:
An Autopsy. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 2006 35: 429-449.

18. Fletcher, D. (2003). Framing organizational emergence: discourse,
identity and relationship. In Steyaert, C & Hjorth, D. (Eds.) New
Movements in Entrepreneurship. London: Edward Elgar, pp. 125-142.
Fletcher, D. E. (2006). Entrepreneurial processes and the social
construction of opportunity. Entrepreneurship and Regional
Development, 18(5), 421-440.
Fletcher, D., (2007). ‘Toy Story:’ The narrative world of
entrepreneurship and the creation of interpretive communities.
Journal of Business Venturing 22 (5), 649–672.
Fletcher, D. E., & Watson, T. J. (2007). Entrepreneurship, management
learning and negotiated narratives:‘Making it otherwise for us—
otherwise for them’. Management Learning, 38(1), 9-26.

19. Gabriel, Y., (2004). Narratives, stories and texts. In: Grant, D., Hardy, C.,
Oswick, C., Putnam, L. (Eds.), The Sage Handbook of Organizational
Discourse. Sage Publications, London, pp. 61–78.
Garud, R., Gehman, J., & Giuliani, A. P. (2014). Contextualizing
entrepreneurial innovation: A narrative perspective. Research Policy.
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Garud, R., & Giuliani, A. P. (2013). A narrative perspective on
entrepreneurial opportunities. Academy of Management Review, 38
(1), 157-160.
Garud, R., Schildt, H. A., & Lant, T. K. (2014). Entrepreneurial
Storytelling, Future Expectations, and the Paradox of
Legitimacy. Organization Science.

20. Goodman, N. (1978). Ways of worldmaking (Vol. 51). Hackett
Publishing.
Green S. E. Jr, Li Y, and Nohria N (2009) Suspended in self-spun webs
of significance: A rhetorical model of institutionalization and
institutionally embedded agency. Academy of Management Journal 52:
11–36.
Hatch, M.J., (1996). The role of the researcher: an analysis of narrative
position in organizational theory. Journal of Management Inquiry 5,
359–374.
Herman D (2009) Basic Elements of Narrative. Chichester: Wiley-
Blackwell.

21. Herman L, Vervaeck B (2005) Handbook of Narrative Analysis.
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Hjorth D, Steyaert C (2004) Narrative and Discursive Approaches
in Entrepreneurship. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Lounsbury, M. and Glynn, M.A. (2001) ‘Cultural
entrepreneurship: Stories, legitimacy, and the acquisitions of
resources’, Strategic Management Journal 22 (6/7): 545–64.
March JG, Sproull LS, and Tamuz M (1991) Learning from
samples of one or fewer. Organization Science 2: 1–13.

22. Martens, M. L., Jennings, J. E., & Jennings, P. D. (2007). Do the stories they tell
get them the money they need? The role of entrepreneurial narratives in
resource acquisition. Academy of Management Journal, 50 (5), 1107-1132.
Martin W (1986) Recent Theories of Narrative. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University
Press.
Phillips, N., Tracey, P. & Karra, N. (2013). Building entrepreneurial tie
portfolios through strategic homophily: The role of narrative identity work in
venture creation and early growth. Journal of Business Venturing. 28: 134–
150.
Pitt, M., 1998. A tale of two gladiators: ‘reading’ entrepreneurs as texts.
Organization Studies 19 (3), 387–414.

23. Polkinghorne DE (1988) Narrative Knowing and the Human
Sciences. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Rae D (2004) Practical theories from entrepreneurs’ stories:
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Small Business and Enterprise Development 11: 195–202.
Rhodes C, Brown AD, (2005) Narrative, organizations and
research. International Journal of Management Reviews 7(3):
167–188.
Richardson, L. (1990). Narrative and Sociology. Journal of
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24. Richardson, L. (1994). NINE POEMS: Marriage and the Family.
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography. 23: 3-13.
Richardson, L. (1995). Writing-Stories: Co-authoring "The Sea
Monster," a Writing-Story. Qualitative Inquiry. 1: 189-202.
Selden, P., & Fletcher, D. (2010). “Practical Narrativity” and the
“Real-time Story” of Entrepreneurial Becoming in The
Republic of Tea. ENTER: Entrepreneurial Narrative Theory
Ethnomethodology and Reflexivity. (1): 51 – 74..
Smith B (2007) The state of the art in narrative inquiry: Some
reflections. Narrative Inquiry 17: 391–398.

25. Smith B (2007) The state of the art in narrative inquiry: Some
reflections. Narrative Inquiry 17: 391–398.
Smith, R., Anderson, A.R., 2004. The devil is in the e-tail: forms
and structures in the entrepreneurial narratives. In: Hjorth, D.,
Steyaert, C. (Eds.), Narrative and Discursive Approaches in
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Steyaert, C. (1997). A qualitative methodology for process
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26. Love at First Sight
Love at First Sight - Wislawa Szymborska
http://www.mission.net/poland/warsaw/literat
ure/poems/lovesigh.htm