Narratives of Enterprise

Narratives of Enterprise
Author: Simon Down
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 153
Release: 2006-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1845429907

. . . a very significant contribution made by the book is the thoughtful, but by no means negative, counterpoint to the omniscient vision of the nascent Schumpeterian superhero. While it is well grounded theoretically, it remains a highly accessible and an engaging read. . . An authoritative and informative account. Lorraine Warren, International Small Business Journal . . . a rich text for expert and non-expert alike. Down makes a valuable addition to the field of enterprise research by highlighting the value of empirical studies of narrative-identity for representing the quieter voices of entrepreneurial activity which he hopes challenge the naysayers . Andrew Greenman, Work, Employment and Society Engagingly written, this sparkling account of the ebb and flow of workaday entrepreneurship injects real life into a field that is too often cluttered by arid enumerators and profilers of irrelevancies. There is space for the accomplished storyteller to provide everyday entrepreneurs with their place in the sun. In this stimulating book, Simon Down marks out this territory in an exemplary fashion. Monder Ram, De Montfort University, UK Writing about small firms all too often bores us with rather abstract survey-based data, irritates us with anecdotal snippets or frustrates us with un-theorised and over-detailed descriptions. Simon Down not only avoids these problems, he delights us with a rich, detailed and entertaining account of life in a small firm. Above all, though, his account is informative and revealing, especially about the entrepreneurial aspects of small firm life and what this means for the people involved. Tony J. Watson, Nottingham University, UK Simon Down s timely ethnographic study takes a philosophically reflective and empirically detailed look at the way in which enterprising people use narrative resources to construct their identity as entrepreneurs. The book draws on a wide range of intellectual sources, from naturalistic philosophy and social-psychology to sociology and organisational theory. Written in a strong narrative style, the book succeeds in making the often complex and inaccessible theories on self-identity easy to understand and convincing in relation to other notions of individual agency. Social aspects of self-identity are examined and elaborated on via the development of concepts such as clichés, generations, space and relationships. These concepts are, in turn, drawn from the narrative, temporal, spatial and relational frameworks through which individuals express self-identity. Neither super-heroes nor villains, the case-study entrepreneurs in Narratives of Enterprise emerge as normal people who seek to make sense of the world through their enterprising activity. Providing a much needed and sophisticated empirical benchmark in a range of debates current in enterprise and organisation studies, this highly accessible book is a must-read for anyone interested in the intersection of self-identity and the character of the entrepreneur.

Narratives of Enterprise

Narratives of Enterprise
Author: Simon Down
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2006
Genre: Businesspeople
ISBN: 9781843767671

Down's ethnographic study takes a philosophically reflective and empirically detailed look at the way in which enterprising people use narrative resources to construct their identity as entrepreneures. The book draws on a range of sources, from naturalistic philosophy and social-psychology to sociology and organisational theory.

Storytelling in Business

Storytelling in Business
Author: Janis Forman
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2013-01-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0804784957

Storytelling can be a lifelong and life sustaining habit of mind, a personal inheritance that connects us to our communities. It can also serve as an organizational inheritance—a management tool that helps businesses to develop and thrive. For more than a decade, award-winning author Janis Forman has been helping executives to tell stories in service of their organizational objectives. In Storytelling in Business: The Authentic and Fluent Organization, she teaches readers everywhere how the craft of storytelling can help them to achieve their professional goals. Focusing on the role of storytelling at the enterprise level, this book provides a research-driven framework for engaging in organizational storytelling. Forman presents original cases from Chevron, FedEx, Phillips, and Schering-Plough. Organizations like those featured in the book can make use of storytelling for good purposes, such as making sense of their strategy, communicating it, and developing or strengthening culture and brand. These uses of storytelling generate positive consequences that can have a sustained and significant impact on an organization. While large firms employ teams of digital and communication professionals, there's much that any of us can extrapolate from their experience to create stories to further our own objectives. To show the reach of storytelling, Forman conducted 140 interviews with professionals ranging from CEOs in small and thriving firms, to corporate communication and digital media experts, to filmmakers—arguably the world experts in visual storytelling. She draws out specific lessons learned, and shows how to employ the road-tested strategies demonstrated by these leaders. Although this book focuses on storytelling in the context of business, Forman takes inspiration from narratives in literature and film, philosophical and social thought, and relevant concepts from a variety of other disciplines to instruct the reader on how to develop truly authentic and meaningful tales to drive success. A final chapter brings readers back to square one: the development of their own "signature story." This book is a pioneering work that guides us beyond the pressure and noise of daily organizational life to influence people in a sustained, powerful way. It teaches us to be fluent storytellers who succeed by mastering this vital skill.

Narrative Organizations

Narrative Organizations
Author: Christine Erlach
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 219
Release: 2020-07-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3662614219

This book shows how to work with stories and narrative approaches in almost all fields of action of a company, and demonstrates the added value resulting from a holistic narrative perspective. The authors take thereby a practice-based perspective from the viewpoint of managing directors, the C-suite, organizational developers, corporate communicators and advisers with a rich description of the methods and implementation. By the employment of these narrative methods, leadership styles, communication, knowledge and change management can be planned in such a way that on the one hand the identity-core of the enterprise remains always apparent and on the other, the organization can develop in an agile fashion into the future.

Narrative and Numbers

Narrative and Numbers
Author: Aswath Damodaran
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2017-01-10
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0231542747

How can a company that has never turned a profit have a multibillion dollar valuation? Why do some start-ups attract large investments while others do not? Aswath Damodaran, finance professor and experienced investor, argues that the power of story drives corporate value, adding substance to numbers and persuading even cautious investors to take risks. In business, there are the storytellers who spin compelling narratives and the number-crunchers who construct meaningful models and accounts. Both are essential to success, but only by combining the two, Damodaran argues, can a business deliver and sustain value. Through a range of case studies, Narrative and Numbers describes how storytellers can better incorporate and narrate numbers and how number-crunchers can calculate more imaginative models that withstand scrutiny. Damodaran considers Uber's debut and how narrative is key to understanding different valuations. He investigates why Twitter and Facebook were valued in the billions of dollars at their public offerings, and why one (Twitter) has stagnated while the other (Facebook) has grown. Damodaran also looks at more established business models such as Apple and Amazon to demonstrate how a company's history can both enrich and constrain its narrative. And through Vale, a global Brazil-based mining company, he shows the influence of external narrative, and how country, commodity, and currency can shape a company's story. Narrative and Numbers reveals the benefits, challenges, and pitfalls of weaving narratives around numbers and how one can best test a story's plausibility.

Storytelling with Data

Storytelling with Data
Author: Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2015-10-09
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 1119002265

Don't simply show your data—tell a story with it! Storytelling with Data teaches you the fundamentals of data visualization and how to communicate effectively with data. You'll discover the power of storytelling and the way to make data a pivotal point in your story. The lessons in this illuminative text are grounded in theory, but made accessible through numerous real-world examples—ready for immediate application to your next graph or presentation. Storytelling is not an inherent skill, especially when it comes to data visualization, and the tools at our disposal don't make it any easier. This book demonstrates how to go beyond conventional tools to reach the root of your data, and how to use your data to create an engaging, informative, compelling story. Specifically, you'll learn how to: Understand the importance of context and audience Determine the appropriate type of graph for your situation Recognize and eliminate the clutter clouding your information Direct your audience's attention to the most important parts of your data Think like a designer and utilize concepts of design in data visualization Leverage the power of storytelling to help your message resonate with your audience Together, the lessons in this book will help you turn your data into high impact visual stories that stick with your audience. Rid your world of ineffective graphs, one exploding 3D pie chart at a time. There is a story in your data—Storytelling with Data will give you the skills and power to tell it!

Narrative and Discursive Approaches in Entrepreneurship

Narrative and Discursive Approaches in Entrepreneurship
Author: Chris Steyaert
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2005-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1845421477

. . . 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 The book 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. Denise Fletcher, International Small Business Journal 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 Daniel Hjorth and Chris Steyaert set out to advance the study of entrepreneurship by refocusing the lens of discovery from economics, management and marketing to other paradigmatic stances in social sciences and humanities like anthropology and literary studies. The result is a provocative collection of chapters that inspire the reader to consider and explore new ideas and research practice that incorporate both the context and place of entrepreneurship. From the perceptive insights of the editors to the rigorous and provocative discourse of the chapters and thoughtful responses in the conclusion emerges a story, in the best of storytelling tradition, about how a linguistic turn can rouse new insights. The editors ask, how do these texts move you? they entice, provoke, challenge, stimulate and guide. Their implications should be far reaching and required reading for any student of t

American Entrepreneur

American Entrepreneur
Author: Larry Schweikart
Publisher: Amacom Books
Total Pages: 535
Release: 2010
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780814414118

Weaving together vivid narrative with economic analysis, "American Entrepreneur" vividly illustrates the history of business in the United States from the point of view of the enterprising men and women who made it happen.

Maps of the Imagination

Maps of the Imagination
Author: Peter Turchi
Publisher: Trinity University Press
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2011-06-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1595340947

Maps of the Imagination takes us on a magic carpet ride over terrain both familiar and exotic. Using the map as a metaphor, fiction writer Peter Turchi considers writing as a combination of exploration and presentation, all the while serving as an erudite and charming guide. He compares the way a writer leads a reader though the imaginary world of a story, novel, or poem to the way a mapmaker charts the physical world. "To ask for a map," says Turchi, "is to say, ‘Tell me a story.’ " With intelligence and wit, the author looks at how mapmakers and writers deal with blank space and the blank page; the conventions they use or consciously disregard; the role of geometry in maps and the parallel role of form in writing; how both maps and writing serve to re-create an individual’s view of the world; and the artist’s delicate balance of intuition with intention. A unique combination of history, critical cartography, personal essay, and practical guide to writing, Maps of the Imagination is a book for writers, for readers, and for anyone interested in creativity. Colorful illustrations and Turchi’s insightful observations make his book both beautiful and a joy to read.