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Looking Back, Moving Forward: A Systematic Review of Entrepreneurship Studies in Communication Research

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Abstract

Despite scholarly consensus that communication is significant to entrepreneurial organizing, communication research in entrepreneurship is nascent. To advance theory and empirical research, this article presents a systematic review of entrepreneurship studies published in communication journals. Through a comprehensive keyword and literature search, we identified 49 relevant articles published in the past 30 years. Content and computational analyses suggest scholars have studied entrepreneurship in a variety of communication domains and sub-fields, including news and journalism, new media technologies, and social networks. Furthermore, most research has focused on conventional entrepreneurship and the processes supporting it rather than entrepreneurship’s antecedents and/or outcomes. Based on our review, we highlight six areas for future research in the intersection of communication and entrepreneurship: (1) entrepreneurial identity, (2) innovation, (3) social networks, (4) digital technologies, (5) institutions, and (6) entrepreneurship by historically underrepresented and minoritized groups.

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The past decade has witnessed a surge of research interest in social entrepreneurship (SE). This has resulted in important insights concerning the role of SE in fostering inclusive growth and institutional change. However, the rapid growth of SE research, the emerging nature of the literature, and the fact that SE builds on different disciplines and fields (e.g., entrepreneurship, sociology, economics, ethics) have led to a rather fragmented literature without dominant frameworks. This situation risks leading to a duplication of efforts and hampers cumulative knowledge growth. Drawing on 395 peer-reviewed articles on SE, we (1) identify gaps in SE research on three levels of analysis (i.e., individual, organizational, institutional), (2) proffer an integrative multistage, multilevel framework, and (3) discuss promising avenues for further research on SE.
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This study considers fact-checkers as innovators and entrepreneurs. It explores funding models as well as perceptions about three core aspects of a successful journalistic enterprise: audiences, value propositions, and resources. Findings indicate particular attention to media literacy and civic engagement, independence, and transparency. In addition, many fact-checkers see their role as not merely extending traditional journalism but also correcting some of its shortcomings.
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This study examines how the perceived locus of crisis cause, controllability, and adherence to social mission are associated with public attitude in the context of a social enterprise crisis and evaluates the differences between these variables under episodic and thematic frames of online articles. Using the crisis case of THINX in 2017 as a case study, a quantitative content analysis was performed on a sample of 503 comments under online articles. Hierarchical regression revealed that the locus of crisis cause and adherence to social mission were associated with public attitude, whereas controllability was not associated with public attitude when adherence to social mission was accounted for. Significant differences were found in the locus of crisis cause, controllability, adherence to social mission, and public attitude between episodic and thematic frames. This study provided a basis for the theoretical development of crisis communication in a social enterprise and the corresponding role for public relations.
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This qualitative study based on interviews at 10 digital news startups in India fills multiple gaps in entrepreneurial journalism literature by exploring how social identities of founders shape innovation and financing at their ventures. In line with extant managerial literature, this study showed founders can be classified according to a typology: Darwinian, Communitarian, Missionary, and Guardian, the last being a new identity specific to entrepreneurial journalists, and perhaps, India. Findings suggest social identity is tied to understandings of innovation, financing, experimentation, audience interactions, and mission. Results also indicate founders’ concepts of entrepreneur and journalist are not necessarily related to social identity.
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This paper examines the adoption and use of mobile communication among several dozen micro-entrepreneurs in Myanmar during the country’s transition into mobile communication. The objective of the paper was to examine whether mobile phone ownership facilitates the work of some micro-entrepreneurs and constrains the work of others. In addition, the paper examines the situation of those who were exploiting the ‘spillover efficiencies’ of mobile telephony by borrowing (sometimes for pay) the phones of others. The findings of this study suggest that the early adopters reap efficiency benefits while those who lag behind have a weaker position. The paper also examines examples of some small-scale ‘sideline’ activities enabled by the mobile phone, e.g., phone owners selling air-time to non-owners. At the same time, the affordances of the device threatened the core of other small-scale entrepreneurs.
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This paper examines the critical role of gender in the commercialization of social ventures. We argue that cultural beliefs about what is perceived to be appropriate work for each gender influence how founders of social ventures incorporate commercial activity into their ventures. Specifically, we argue and show that although cultural beliefs that disassociate women from commercial activity may result in female social venture founders being less likely to use commercial activity than their male counterparts, these effects are moderated by cultural beliefs about gender and commercial activity within founders’ local communities. The presence of female business owners in the same community mitigates the role of founders’ gender on the use of commercial activity. We examine these issues through a novel sample of 584 social ventures in the United States. We constructively replicate and extend these findings with a supplemental analysis of a second sample, the full population of new nonprofit organizations founded during a two-year period in the United States (n = 31,160). By highlighting how gendered aspects of both the social and commercial sectors interact to shape the use of commercial activity by social venture founders, our findings contribute to research on hybrid organizations in the social sector, communities as a context for the enactment of gender, and the enactment of gender in entrepreneurship. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2017.1144 .
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Crowdfunding is a new business model in which journalists rely—and depend—on (micro-) payments by a large number of supporters to finance their reporting. In this form of entrepreneurial journalism the roles of publisher, fundraiser and journalist often overlap. This raises questions about conflicts of interest, accountability and transparency. The article presents the results of selected case studies in four different European countries—Germany (Krautreporter), Italy (Occhidellaguerra), the United Kingdom (Contributoria) and the Netherlands (De Correspondent)—as well as one US example (Kickstarter). The study used a two-step methodological approach: first a content analysis of the websites and the Twitter accounts with regard to practices of media accountability, transparency and user participation was undertaken. The aim was to investigate how far ethical challenges in crowdfunded entrepreneurial journalism are accounted for. Second, we present findings from semi-structured interviews with journalists from each crowdfunding. The study provides evidence about the ethical issues in this area, particularly in relation to production transparency and responsiveness. The study also shows that in some cases of crowdfunding (platforms), accountability is outsourced and implemented only through the audience participation.
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Using cultural empowerment as a conceptual framework, this study emphasizes the interrelated role of culture, rhetorical agency, and empowerment in discursive analysis and communicative practice. Twelve black business owners were interviewed using a narrative inquiry approach. Thematic analysis revealed that these entrepreneurs enacted rhetorical agency in ways that work within oppressive systems and resisted damaging dominate discourses about black businesses. By highlighting the rhetorical narratives of black entrepreneurs, this study also addresses the need for a more culturally sensitive approach in business, professional, and organizational communication.
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Entrepreneurship is a dynamic concept that can be explored from a variety of perspectives and a number of different contexts. Originating within the discipline of economics, the concept of entrepreneurship has grown exponentially in Western scholarship and practice over recent decades, and is now addressed by scholars across disciplines, including management and organization studies, sociology, psychology, and critical studies, leading to the formation of the burgeoning, interdisciplinary field of “entrepreneurship studies.” The multidisciplinary attention to entrepreneurship has underscored that the concept cannot be defined with any certainty, though many scholars agree that in its most general sense, entrepreneurship refers to the mindsets, attitudes, and processes associated with or attributed to creating value; what is meant by “value,” however, continues to be debated. Entrepreneurship has only recently been taken up by organizational communication, which has done so largely by joining other critical and discourse-centered approaches for understanding the concept.