News and nuances of the entrepreneurial myth and metaphor: linguistic games in entrepreneurial sense-making and sense-giving.

Nicholson, Louise; Anderson, Alistair R.

Abstract

This article describes a social construction of entrepreneurship by exploring the constructionalist building blocks of communication, myth, and metaphor presented in a major British middle range broadsheet newspaper with no particular party political allegiance. We argue that the sense-making 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 this newspaper revealed images of male entrepreneurs as dynamic wolfish charmers, supernatural gurus, successful skyrockets or community saviors and corrupters. Finally, this article relates the temporal construction of myth and metaphor to the dynamics of enterprise culture.

Citation

NICHOLSON, L. and ANDERSON, A.R. 2005. News and nuances of the entrepreneurial myth and metaphor: linguistic games in entrepreneurial sense-making and sense-giving. Entrepreneurship theory and practice [online], 29(2), pages 153-173. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2005.00074.x

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 31, 2005
• Online Publication Date: Mar 31, 2005
• Publication Date: Mar 31, 2005
• Deposit Date: Sep 5, 2008
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 5, 2008
• Journal: Entrepreneurship theory and practice
• Print ISSN: 1042-2587
• Electronic ISSN: 1540-6520
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 29
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 153-172
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2005.00074.x
• Keywords: Entrepreneurship
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/205