Entrepreneurial Storytelling as Narrative Practice in Project and Organizational Development

Abstract

Based on an organizational communication perspective, I reconstruct entrepreneurial storytelling as a reciprocal process of “entrepreneurializing.” By focusing on two case studies from the Swiss cultural and creative industries sector, I outline narrative praxes, practices and practitioners of entrepreneurial storytelling in project and organizational development. Storymaking and storytelling about a curatorial, innovative, entrepreneurial, strategic, collaborative and knowledge-driven design process generate entrepreneurial narration, design, networks and organization-specific discourse. I suggest this interplay as the basis for the entrepreneurial story and value creation that shape the narrative identity of projects, organizations and enterprises. For the case studies examined within this study, this is constituted through the project-narrative of “curating tooligans and busy brokers” and the entrepreneurial hero-narrative of “conquering adventurers and preserving guardians.” Implications are discussed to guide future research in regard to the emerging field of entrepreneurial storytelling. In light of the development and transfer of new tools and formats for teaching, coaching and consulting, applications for professionals are described first.