"Firm Proposes, Community Disposes: Reacting to Social Barriers to Entry"

Abstract

In this paper we draw upon literatures on impression management and social communities to examine a firm’s rhetorical responses to social contestation from the community, which the firm seeks to enter. Specifically, we examine negative claims as a complementary response to positive claims, which is considered a legitimation tactic by extant literature on firm rhetoric. We argue that in contrast to a positive claim, which draws attention towards the positive attributes of the firm, a negative claim is a delegitimation tactic that directs attention towards the negative aspects of a firm’s detractors in order to dissuade them from participating in the contestation. Further, positive claims seek endorsement from a broader set of external constituents but negative claims necessarily have a narrow focus because the target of the claim is a specific detractor. We develop our arguments and hypotheses to elaborate how this complementary and yet asymmetrical nature of the two claims becomes evident when the firm responds to contestation from within as well as outside the community it seeks to enter. Using data from the proposals for new LNG import terminals in the US from 2000 to 2013 and using longitudinal analysis methods we find support for all our hypotheses.