The role of entrepreneurial narratives in establishing trust and legitimacy in the cross-border expansion of small businesses

Mazen Hakim, Stephan Gerschewski

Research output: Contribution to conferenceAbstractpeer-review

Abstract

When entrepreneurs plan to initiate a new foreign market entry, research has shown that narratives may serve them the purpose of constructing a new identity with their stakeholders, establishing trust and legitimacy, and managing uncertainty amid contextual and cultural differences. This calls for further exploration of how the elusive elements of trust and legitimacy are achieved; two concepts that are believed to be strongly related to the construction of the entrepreneurial identity. This paper suggests that this may be achieved through a careful process of sense-making in which stakeholders may ultimately confer their trust and legitimacy by continuously validating their initial ‘emplotment’ of the entrepreneur’s constructed identity and, by assessing the prevalent entrepreneurial orientation (EO) i.e. the entrepreneur’s passion, perseverance, pro-activeness, innovativeness and risk taking; to ultimately reach a feeling that ‘everything will work out’. This on-going activity is particularly visible in the early years of operation, but gradually recedes as the business becomes more ‘legitimate’.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 13 Dec 2019
EventEuropean International Business Academy Conference 2019 - University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
Duration: 13 Dec 201915 Dec 2019
http://eiba2019.eiba.org/index.html

Conference

ConferenceEuropean International Business Academy Conference 2019
Abbreviated titleEIBA 2019
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityLeeds
Period13/12/1915/12/19
Internet address

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Business and International Management

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