Please, hurry up! Leveraging narratives to speed up the mobilization of resources for entrepreneurial ventures

Johnson, David; Geiger, Mark; Gianiodis, Peter; Bock, Adam

Abstract

Narratives are important facilitators of resource mobilization. Specifically, entrepreneurs and ventures utilize narratives to persuade stakeholders to part with resources to support innovative activities and entrepreneurial action. We investigate the narrative discourse of university-industry contract research proposals to understand how language determines the speed of contract research acceptance/rejection (i.e., speed to decision) and the mobilization of non-financial capital resources. Ventures that can increase decision-making speed can gain access to valuable resources quicker, which supports their orchestration. Utilizing Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), we explore the narrative content of 3,422 contract research proposals. Findings show a positive association of entrepreneurial-oriented language and specific cognitive-oriented language with decision-making speed, which in turn shows a positive association with contract research proposal acceptance. Our findings have important implications for theory, practice, and policy.

Citation

Johnson, D., Geiger, M., Gianiodis, P., & Bock, A. (in press). Please, hurry up! Leveraging narratives to speed up the mobilization of resources for entrepreneurial ventures. Academy of Management Perspectives,

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 26, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jan 2, 2025
• Journal: Academy of Management Perspectives
• Print ISSN: 1558-9080
• Electronic ISSN: 1943-4529
• Publisher: Academy of Management
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: Narratives; Linguistic Properties; Speed to Decision; Resource Mobilization; Entrepreneurial Ventures; University-Industry Engagement
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3317485
• Publisher URL: https://journals.aom.org/journal/amp