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1 – 10 of over 2000The purpose of this paper is to investigate the aesthetic dimension of entrepreneur poems. The notion of the entrepreneur as storyteller, and the entrepreneur story as cultural…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the aesthetic dimension of entrepreneur poems. The notion of the entrepreneur as storyteller, and the entrepreneur story as cultural genres have become so firmly entrenched in the collective social consciousness that little consideration is given to the existence of other narrative genres, such as business poetry as expressions, or manifestations of enterprising behaviour and indeed identities. Poetry, like art, possesses aesthetic dimensions which make it difficult to theorize and analyze. Indeed, as a genre, poetry seldom features as a heuristic device for better understanding entrepreneurial behaviour or learning. This is surprising because poetry in particular is a wonderfully creative and expressive narrative medium and accordingly, many entrepreneurs engage in writing poetry as a form of creative expression.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study the author considers the entrepreneur as poet and from a reading of the literatures of entrepreneurship and aesthetics develops an aesthetic framework for analysing entrepreneur poetry which is used to analyze six poems written by entrepreneurs or about entrepreneurs.
Findings
That poetry has value in terms of entrepreneurial learning because of its atheoretical nature it permits listeners to experience the emotion and passion of lived entrepreneurial experiences and to relive these vicariously. In particular entrepreneur poems are a variant form of entrepreneur story devoid of the usual cliché.
Research limitations/implications
There are obvious limitations to the study in that the analysis of six poems can merely scratch the surface and that aesthetic analysis is by its very nature subjective and open to interpretation. The study opens up possibilities for further research into entrepreneur poems, the aesthetics of other non-standard entrepreneur narratives and consideration of the aesthetic elements of entrepreneurship per se. Poetics and aesthetics are areas of narrative understanding ripe for further empirical research.
Originality/value
The paper is original in terms of creating an aesthetic framework used to analyze entrepreneur poems. Indeed, little consideration had previously been given to the topic.
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The purpose of this paper is to look again at the ideas set out in the author's 1994 anthology, The Poetry of Business Life.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to look again at the ideas set out in the author's 1994 anthology, The Poetry of Business Life.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on a large sample of poems on business themes by a variety of “professional” and “practising managerial” poets. It supplies a spontaneous, empirical first taxonomy (organised as “Cantos” in the eventual 1994 anthology) of the areas of “economic life” where the domains of “poetry” and “business” seem most to intersect. Such spontaneous classification yields important but mainly unsurprising “topic cells” (Cantos) – “Money”, “Work”, “Markets”, “Corporate life”, “Politics and power”, “Technology” etc. – each requiring further research. The residue of less predictable themes, however, includes “Travel and movement” as an important but (by analysts) relatively neglected, obsessive source of metaphor and poetic focus.
Findings
Across these “vertical” structures of topic and theme the paper points towards the more generic “lateral” implications for all of them of the differences between the “language of poetry” (evocation, relational) and the conventional “language of business” (information, measurement, separation). This is the author's main area of future interest.
Originality/value
The paper confirms the need to pursue critical analysis of “business poetry” by the exacting criteria of poetry generally rather than merely as an esoteric, separate sub‐category.
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Ted Buswick, Clare Morgan and Kirsten Lange
To convey the findings of an investigation into the relationship between poetry and business thinking, which began with the hypothesis that regular reading and analysis of poetry…
Abstract
Purpose
To convey the findings of an investigation into the relationship between poetry and business thinking, which began with the hypothesis that regular reading and analysis of poetry and its levels of meaning, subtle verbal and nonverbal contextual nuances, emotional content, and required associative thinking will help people deal with ambiguity, delay closure on decisions, and result in more systemic thinking and in better business decisions.
Findings
The research and workshops indicate that reading poetry can expand thinking space by enhancing associative thinking and access to preconceptual areas.
Research limitation/implications
The findings are based on extensive interdisciplinary research and a small number of seminars and workshops. No formal studies have yet been conducted.
Practical implications
This provides a way to open thinking spaces that may be often unused by the business strategist, and that can lead to better decisions. By focusing on how executives can refine their thinking abilities to take them beyond the ordinary limits of cause‐and‐effect approaches, encourages the application of those radical judgments that can help differentiate one organization from another.
Originality/value
The authors believe they are the first to explore this relationship between reading poetry and business thinking.
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Isabel Brüggemann, Jochem Kroezen and Paul Tracey
This study gives insights into how marginalized logics evolve after having been replaced by a new dominant logic. In light of the case of UK trade book publishing where an…
Abstract
This study gives insights into how marginalized logics evolve after having been replaced by a new dominant logic. In light of the case of UK trade book publishing where an editorial logic persisted and morphed after the increasing commercialization of the field – epitomized by the proliferation of so-called “factory fiction” – the authors identify three generative paths of marginalized logic evolution: preservation, purification and radicalization. The authors show how these paths hinge on the activities of three groups of actors who resist conforming to a dominant logic. The findings of this study advance scholars’ understanding of the historical evolution of institutional logics, but also remind them that the acts of resistance are typically embedded in macro-level dynamics related to broader institutional processes. In particular, this study sheds light on the different ways in which acts of resistance may be structured by actors’ experience of friction between competing institutional logics.
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Fahri Karakas, Ismail Golgeci and Sally Dibb
This chapter uses reflexive praxis to advance a framework for developing creative virtuosities for entrepreneurs based on four interrelated aspects: finding their own voice and…
Abstract
This chapter uses reflexive praxis to advance a framework for developing creative virtuosities for entrepreneurs based on four interrelated aspects: finding their own voice and passion at work; unleashing creativity and imagination at work; working collaboratively toward innovation; and handling complexity and integrative thinking. These four creative virtuosities emerged from observations and exploratory interviews with training program participants on five different occasions in Turkey, the UK, and Canada. They are illustrated through four arts-based metaphors: poetry; theater; orchestra; and jazz. The core premise of this chapter is that these four virtuosities can provide entrepreneurs with a sound basis and a wealth of knowledge on developing creative solutions to new socioeconomic challenges of prospective radical technological and economic changes.
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Within entrepreneurship literature, the conventional approaches inspired by Schumpeter's “creative destruction” have largely emphasized the role of human cognitive processes to…
Abstract
Within entrepreneurship literature, the conventional approaches inspired by Schumpeter's “creative destruction” have largely emphasized the role of human cognitive processes to come up with new business ideas. In contemporary studies, however, there is a recent research stream wherein creativity is aestheticized. As a research line of the aesthetic approach, there is an increasing interest for playfulness and other signals of enjoyment that can also stimulate the entrepreneur's creative acts.
This chapter is a reflexion about the liberating and creative role of play in the context of sport entrepreneurship, particularly, in the fitness industry. It aspires to give to the recent development of the sport entrepreneurship field a novel twist by relating it to a theology of play. Drawing on the work of one of the most influential twentieth-century theologians who has approached play theology, Hugo Rahner, we present how his theological approach may be used to widen our understanding of sport entrepreneurship. This theological perspective allows us to develop alternative thoughts based on concepts that transcend the typical rationalist business approach and its instrumental language.
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Using the theory of sensibility and McClelland et al.’s (2013) metaphorical analysis, this study aims to analyse the accounting metaphors and meta-metaphor of The Hollow Men, a…
Abstract
Purpose
Using the theory of sensibility and McClelland et al.’s (2013) metaphorical analysis, this study aims to analyse the accounting metaphors and meta-metaphor of The Hollow Men, a poem written by T. S. Eliot.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis uses McClelland et al.’s (2013) five-step procedure to ascertain the poem’s metaphor use.
Findings
The Hollow Men depicts accountants as ritualistic and accounting voices as quiet and meaningless while its meta-metaphor conveys accounting as rites and shadows.
Research limitations/implications
Although The Hollow Men’s use of Form 4 metaphors, where neither figurative nor literal source term is named, places an onus on the reader to infer meaning from accounting metaphor use, the analysis provides readers with a valuable structure for evincing accounting metaphors that present pervasive accounting issues facing the modern world.
Practical implications
Accountants, according to The Hollow Men, are hollow, devotees to plunderers and property and rain dancers. The Hollow Men situates the quest for accounting as a ritual for order and the preservation of the status quo.
Social implications
The Hollow Men’s mages of accounting immersion in rites and shadows accord with the conceptual metaphors of accounting as magic and accounting as history.
Originality/value
The originality of this study rests in its introduction to McClelland et al.’s (2013) metaphorical analysis of accounting research.
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The attack on the institution of business is acelerating at a more furious pace. In this post‐Watergate era the momentum of the assault is being fuelled by the almost daily…
Abstract
The attack on the institution of business is acelerating at a more furious pace. In this post‐Watergate era the momentum of the assault is being fuelled by the almost daily revelations of corporate misdeeds. America's growing anti‐business mood may culminate in more government controls being imposed on the economy and possibly the nationalisation of some industries. Clearly, the implications for the social, political, and economic system are most serious. The problem is compounded by the artist, especially the writers of fiction. Both current novelists and those of previous eras have presented a consistently negative image of the typical businessman. Shylock in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickens' A Christmas Carol paint portraits of very ugly businessmen. Indeed, that same portrait is replicated by virtually every artist to the present day.