Interpretation of successful and failed events in entrepreneurial firms: Acknowledgement practice under uncertainty

Johnson, David; Bock, Adam J; Thompson, Alex

Abstract

Event interpretation and acknowledgement drive behaviour and identity formation in organisations. Extant studies exploring this link have focused on large, stable organisations. We extend these studies to entrepreneurial contexts where individual behaviour and organisational identity are especially fluid. We analyse narratives of success and failure in entrepreneurial firms to identify and explore acknowledgement practice, which is the ad-hoc action (or inaction) of organisational actors and groups responding to observed events. We explore how uncertainty affects event interpretation and acknowledgement. Within entrepreneurial contexts, we show that event interpretation and acknowledgement biases influence responses to success and failure. The combination of these biases reveals four broad emergent organisational characteristics, which have important implications for organisational identity.

Citation

Johnson, D., Bock, A. J., & Thompson, A. (2022). Interpretation of successful and failed events in entrepreneurial firms: Acknowledgement practice under uncertainty. International Small Business Journal, 40(7), 845-874. https://doi.org/10.1177/02662426211056303

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Dec 16, 2021
• Publication Date: 2022-11
• Deposit Date: Mar 2, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 2, 2023
• Journal: International Small Business Journal: Researching Entrepreneurship
• Print ISSN: 0266-2426
• Electronic ISSN: 1741-2870
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 40
• Issue: 7
• Pages: 845-874
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/02662426211056303
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1179724