Storied business : Typology, intertextuality, and traffic in entrepreneurial narrative

Based on ten months of field research in a high technology start-up, and using ethnographic and grounded theory methodologies, this study identifies six basic narrative types (founding, visionary, marketing, strategy, historical, and conventional) in three main categories (personal, generic, and situational) that are essential in founding and governing a new company. These stories enable founders to (a) justify the existence of the company; (b) convince others to devote funds and other key resources to the company; and (c) make key decisions in the short and intermediate term. Also described in the paper is the interaction of these narratives, which in this case were often conflicting and even contradictory. The paper argues that a key competence of the founder and entrepreneur is not only the ability to develop narrative competence across the three categories but also to develop a command of their interactivity, or intertextuality.