IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jobuve/v15y2021ics2352673421000202.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“One tiny drop changes everything”: Constructing opportunity with words

Author

Listed:
  • Liubertė, Irina
  • Dimov, Dimo

Abstract

This paper uses the theory of speech acts to explore how entrepreneurs use language to construct the opportunities they set out to pursue. We use the case of Theranos (a journey from inspiring vision to criminal infamy) as a natural setting that draws a sharp contrast between words as the content of speech (“opportunity”) and world as its object (opportunity). Our analysis of communication from the early days of the company highlights locutionary content (framing, filling, connecting, and committing), illocutionary force (statements, claims, feelings, attitudes, vows, pledges), and perlocutionary effects (agitate, inspire, envisage, mobilize, and reassure) as distinct aspects of opportunity construction.

Suggested Citation

  • Liubertė, Irina & Dimov, Dimo, 2021. "“One tiny drop changes everything”: Constructing opportunity with words," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 15(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jobuve:v:15:y:2021:i:c:s2352673421000202
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbvi.2021.e00242
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352673421000202
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbvi.2021.e00242?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Lounsbury & Mary Ann Glynn, 2001. "Cultural entrepreneurship: stories, legitimacy, and the acquisition of resources," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(6‐7), pages 545-564, June.
    2. Jean S. Clarke & Joep P. Cornelissen & Mark Healey, 2019. "Actions Speak Louder than Words : How Figurative Language and Gesturing in Entrepreneurial Pitches Influences Investment Judgments," Post-Print hal-02276704, HAL.
    3. David Barberá-Tomás & Itziar Castelló & Frank de Bakker & Charlene Zietsma, 2019. "Energizing through Visuals: How Social Entrepreneurs Use Emotion-Symbolic Work for Social Change," Post-Print hal-02511088, HAL.
    4. Jean S. Clarke & Joep P. Cornelissen & Mark Healey, 2019. "Actions Speak Louder than Words : How Figurative Language and Gesturing in Entrepreneurial Pitches Influences Investment Judgments," Post-Print hal-02312189, HAL.
    5. Raghu Garud & Henri A. Schildt & Theresa K. Lant, 2014. "Entrepreneurial Storytelling, Future Expectations, and the Paradox of Legitimacy," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(5), pages 1479-1492, October.
    6. Timo van Balen & Murat Tarakci & Ashish Sood, 2019. "Do Disruptive Visions Pay Off? The Impact of Disruptive Entrepreneurial Visions on Venture Funding," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(2), pages 303-342, March.
    7. Dimo Dimov, 2011. "Grappling with the Unbearable Elusiveness of Entrepreneurial Opportunities," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 35(1), pages 57-81, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Di Pietro, Francesca & Souitaris, Vangelis & Masciarelli, Francesca & Prencipe, Andrea, 2023. "Closeness of the future: Influence of language future-time reference on individual behaviour," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 19(C).
    2. Leong David, 2022. "Probabilistic Interpretation of Observer Effect on Entrepreneurial Opportunity," Organizacija, Sciendo, vol. 55(4), pages 243-258, November.
    3. Stroe, Silvia & Sirén, Charlotta & Parida, Vinit & Wincent, Joakim, 2022. "Framing ideas for new venture resources acquisition in crises: An fsQCA analysis," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stroe, Silvia & Sirén, Charlotta & Parida, Vinit & Wincent, Joakim, 2022. "Framing ideas for new venture resources acquisition in crises: An fsQCA analysis," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    2. Jean‐François Soublière & Christi Lockwood, 2022. "Achieving cultural resonance: Four strategies toward rallying support for entrepreneurial endeavors," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(8), pages 1499-1527, August.
    3. Yuliya Snihur & Llewellyn D. W. Thomas & Raghu Garud & Nelson Phillips, 2022. "Entrepreneurial Framing: A Literature Review and Future Research Directions," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 46(3), pages 578-606, May.
    4. Liu, Yipeng, 2020. "The micro-foundations of global business incubation: Stakeholder engagement and strategic entrepreneurial partnerships," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    5. Aaron H. Anglin & Shane W. Reid & Jeremy C. Short, 2023. "More Than One Way to Tell a Story: A Configurational Approach to Storytelling in Crowdfunding," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(2), pages 461-494, March.
    6. Denise Falchetti & Gino Cattani & Simone Ferriani, 2022. "Start with “Why,” but only if you have to: The strategic framing of novel ideas across different audiences," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(1), pages 130-159, January.
    7. David Clingingsmith & Will Drover & Scott Shane, 2023. "Examining the outcomes of entrepreneur pitch training: an exploratory field study," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 947-974, March.
    8. Greg Fisher & Emily Neubert, 2023. "Evaluating Ventures Fast and Slow: Sensemaking, Intuition, and Deliberation in Entrepreneurial Resource Provision Decisions," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(4), pages 1298-1326, July.
    9. Shane, Scott & Drover, Will & Clingingsmith, David & Cerf, Moran, 2020. "Founder passion, neural engagement and informal investor interest in startup pitches: An fMRI study," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(4).
    10. Philip T. Roundy, 2021. "On Entrepreneurial Stories: Tolkien’s Theory of Fantasy and the Bridge between Imagination and Innovation," Business Perspectives and Research, , vol. 9(1), pages 31-45, January.
    11. Jungwon Min, 2024. "A Symbolic Framing of Exploitative Firms: Evidence from Japan," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 190(3), pages 589-605, March.
    12. Krukowski, Kipp A. & Pollack, Jeffrey M. & Rutherford, Matthew W., 2023. "Winning the opportunity to pitch: Piquing startup investors’ interest by sending the right signals in executive summaries," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 75-86.
    13. Karin Kreutzer, 2022. "On the Discursive Construction of Social Entrepreneurship in Pitch Situations: The Intertextual Reproduction of Business and Social Discourse by Presenters and Their Audience," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(4), pages 1071-1090, September.
    14. Sanchez-Ruiz, Paul & Wood, Matthew S. & Long-Ruboyianes, Anna, 2021. "Persuasive or polarizing? The influence of entrepreneurs' use of ingratiation rhetoric on investor funding decisions," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(4).
    15. Srikant, Chethan D., 2019. "Impression management strategies to gain regulatory approval," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 136-153.
    16. Amira Laifi & Yabo Octave Niamié & Olivier Germain, 2023. "The Ignored Legitimation Paradox of Northern Technology-based New Ventures Encountering Southern Contexts: Case Study of a French e-Books Company," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 32(2_suppl), pages 159-183, November.
    17. McSweeney, Jordan J. & McSweeney, Kevin T. & Webb, Justin W. & Devers, Cynthia E., 2022. "The right touch of pitch assertiveness: Examining entrepreneurs' gender and project category fit in crowdfunding," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 37(4).
    18. Werner Liebregts & Pourya Darnihamedani & Eric Postma & Martin Atzmueller, 2020. "The promise of social signal processing for research on decision-making in entrepreneurial contexts," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 589-605, October.
    19. Oo, Pyayt P. & Jiang, Lin & Sahaym, Arvin & Parhankangas, Annaleena & Chan, Richard, 2023. "Actions in words: How entrepreneurs use diversified and changing speech acts to achieve funding success," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 38(2).
    20. Mindel, Vitali & Overstreet, Robert E. & Sternberg, Henrik & Mathiassen, Lars & Phillips, Nelson, 2024. "Digital activism to achieve meaningful institutional change: A bricolage of crowdsourcing, social media, and data analytics," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(3).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jobuve:v:15:y:2021:i:c:s2352673421000202. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-business-venturing-insights .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.