The Themes of Entrepreneurship Discourse: A Data Analytics Approach

Philip T Roundy,Arben Asllani

doi:10.7341/20181436

Abstract

Scholars are devotng heightened atenton to the language of entrepreneurship and to its inﬂuence on the cogniton, behaviors, and outcomes of entrepreneurs and their stakeholders. However, the primary themes that consttute entrepreneurs’ language are unexamined. In this partally-inductve study, we identfy the most common themes in entrepreneurship discourse and explore how they have changed over tme. To map the themes in entrepreneurs’ language, we use data analytc techniques coupled with text mining algorithms to analyze a longitudinal corpus of entrepreneurial discourse. Our fndings reveal fve dominant and recurring themes in entrepreneurship discourse – marketng actvites, technology-oriented entrepreneurship, digital entrepreneurship, professional investment, and new venture entrepreneurship – and illustrate how these themes are evolving. By examining the key themes in the discourse of entrepreneurs and chartng their transformaton over tme, our study makes theoretcal and methodological contributons to entrepreneurship research. We identfy the areas where the academic literature seems to be lagging practtoner discussions and suggest that scholars should evaluate research for how closely topics are calibrated with the main themes in the discourse of entrepreneurs. Our fndings also produce practcal implicatons for entrepreneurs by identfying the main themes receiving atenton, which allows entrepreneurs to evaluate if the topics that comprise their day-to-day discourse align with the themes emphasized in the larger body of entrepreneurship discourse.

Highlights

Entrepreneurship scholars are embracing the “linguistic turn” in organization studies and the social sciences (Alvesson & Karreman, 2000; Hjorth & Steyaert, 2004; van Werven, Bouwmeester, & Cornelissen, 2015)
Research primarily emphasizes how entrepreneurs use language and the outcomes of language-use and does not devote attention to the content and structure of entrepreneurial discourse (e.g., Lounsbury & Glynn, 2001). This represents an important omission in studies of entrepreneurs’ language because without a detailed understanding of the themes of entrepreneurial discourse it is difficult to identify the topics that are at the center of entrepreneurs’ communications and attention. To address these omissions in prior research, in this study we examine two related questions: what are the themes that comprise entrepreneurship discourse and how have these themes changed over time? To explore these questions, we use a partially-inductive methodology
The study aimed to identify the key themes in entrepreneurship discourse and to examine if these themes changed over time

Summary

Introduction

Entrepreneurship scholars are embracing the “linguistic turn” in organization studies and the social sciences (Alvesson & Karreman, 2000; Hjorth & Steyaert, 2004; van Werven, Bouwmeester, & Cornelissen, 2015). Entrepreneurs’ language-use manifests in the discourse constructed during the entrepreneurial process and used to describe the novel organizations, products, and initiatives that entrepreneurs create (Clarke & Cornelissen, 2014). Research primarily emphasizes how entrepreneurs use language and the outcomes of language-use and does not devote attention to the content and structure of entrepreneurial discourse (e.g., Lounsbury & Glynn, 2001). This represents an important omission in studies of entrepreneurs’ language because without a detailed understanding of the themes of entrepreneurial discourse it is difficult to identify the topics that are at the center of entrepreneurs’ communications and attention

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion