Narrative and Discursive Approaches in Entrepreneurship

A Second Movements in Entrepreneurship Book

Edited by Daniel Hjorth, Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration and Professor of Entrepreneurship and Organisation, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark and Chris Steyaert, Doctor in Psychology and Professor in Organizational Psychology, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland

This is the second volume in a mini-series on movements in entrepreneurship. It aims to forward the study of entrepreneurship by stimulating and exploring new ideas and research practices in relation to new themes, theories, methods, pragmatic stances and contexts. The book explores different experiences and accounts of entrepreneurship, as well as reflections on ‘story telling’ in entrepreneurship research, discursive studies, and debates on how to interpret narrative and discursive work.

‘. . . the four books comprising the series would certainly be a valuable addition to any entrepreneurship library. However, each book also stands alone as an individual purchase.’
– Lorraine Warren, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research

“这本书delivers what it promises: a map of the uses of narrative methods in entrepreneurship studies. It is both an interesting contribution to the field and an important methodological handbook for all entrepreneurship researchers who are thinking of adopting qualitative methods in their inquiries. However, it may also be read with advantage by other researchers using ethnography as their main methodological approach to social studies. . . The aim of the book is to show how narratives can enrich entrepreneurship
studies, a goal that in my opinion is aptly fulfilled.’
– Monika Kostera, Scandinavian Journal of Management

‘. . . the contributors in this text breathe fresh and imaginative linguistic resources and narrative/discursive frames of reference into the inquiry of entrepreneurial activities. The anecdote, the narrative, the metaphorical, the discursive and the dramaturgical are significant therefore, not only because they bring to the surface voices, emotions, processes and the relationality of (everyday) entrepreneurial activity that have possibly been previously silenced. But also, to paraphrase Steyaert, these approaches highlight the controversial and interactive aspects of the research process. . . The text is welcome because it treats narrative in a serious and scholarly way.’
- 丹妮丝·弗莱彻（Denise Fletcher），国际小企业杂志

‘In their edited book Narrative and Discursive Approaches in Entrepreneurship, Daniel Hjorth and Chris Steyaert provide a fascinating glimpse into a perspective on entrepreneurship that will be enlightening for many readers. Entrepreneurship authors typically talk about theory, methods, and data as if a straight-forward linear process united them all, and making sense of entrepreneurship was simply a matter of knowing how to interpret one’s “findings”. By contrast, the authors in this volume propose narrative and discursive approaches in which the contributing authors emphasize rich description, reflexive conceptualization, and interpretations offered as part of the story itself. They draw upon an international set of cases, including Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Venezuela, and North America. The cases themselves make for fascinating reading, quite apart from what we learn about the difficulties of imposing a particular interpretation on a given story. For example, taxi drivers in Caracas, management consultants in Denmark, and women entrepreneurs in northern Norway all make for fascinating narratives from which to understand the entrepreneurial process. Unlike many edited books which have no “plot”, the editors have included opening and closing sections that link the chapters, offer alternative readings of them, and propose new and expansive ways of thinking about entrepreneurship.’
– Howard Aldrich, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, US

‘丹尼尔·赫沃斯（Daniel Hjorth）和克里斯·史蒂亚特（Chris Steyaert）着手通过将发现的镜头从经济学，管理和市场营销重新聚焦到社会科学和人文科学（如人类学和文学研究）中的其他范式立场来推进企业家精神的研究。结果是挑衅性的章节集合，激发读者考虑并探索融合企业家精神的背景和地点的新思想和研究实践。从编辑的知觉见解到结论中章节的严格和挑衅性话语，以讲故事的最佳传统出现了一个故事，关于“语言转折”如何引起新的见解。编辑问：“这些文本如何使您移动？”- 他们吸引，挑衅，挑战，刺激和指导。对于任何企业家现象的学生来说，它们的含义应该是遥远的，并且需要阅读。确实，编辑带我们去了“未开发的目的地”。
– Nancy M. Carter, University of St. Thomas, US