Entrepreneurial Storytelling: Leveraging Narratives for Legitimacy and Success
Tuesday, July 29, 2025 | 1:45–3:15 PM CEST | Bella Center – Hall A, Room A1-m2
What difference do words make when building a venture from the ground up? In the uncertainty of entrepreneurial environments, how do stories shape an enterprise's trajectory? Put differently: what can storytelling tell us about the entrepreneurial journey?
Entrepreneurs rely not just on models or markets, but on narratives: stories that connect, persuade, and endure. As entrepreneurship research grows more attuned to the lived realities of founders across diverse contexts, the strategic role of narrative demands greater attention.
Join us on Day 5 (07/29) of #AOM2025 in Copenhagen for an interactive caucus examining how entrepreneurs craft and deploy stories to navigate complexity, engage stakeholders, and build legitimacy.
Our discussion centers on a core set of questions:
- How do entrepreneurs frame their ventures to resonate across institutional, cultural, and geographic divides?
- What role do place, identity, and symbolic meaning play in shaping narrative effectiveness?
- How might we more fully theorize narrative strategy within entrepreneurial ecosystems?
This format will be fully interactive. Participants will rotate through roundtables to share work in progress, exchange conceptual insights, and reflect on narrative dynamics in their own empirical settings. This session aims to surface insight, foster connection, and spark collaboration across divisions.
Session Leads
Chris Willis (University of Mary Washington), Mauricio Mercado (Syracuse University)
Organizing Team
Jose A. Cerecedo Lopez (Elon University), Vitaliy Skorodziyevskiy (University of Louisville), Bahar Javadi (San Francisco State University), Matt Farrell (Austin Peay State University), Jorge Cruz (University of Texas at San Antonio)
Whatever your research focus or methodological lens, we invite your voice. Come share your work, your experience-and above all, your stories.
More information can be found on the Academy of Management Program Page: https://lnkd.in/gkEHUGC7.