Fox, Hamilton and Larty

1. Literary frameworks for narrative
analysis in entrepreneurship
research
A tale of two researchers
Joanne Larty – j.larty@lancaster.ac.uk
Eleanor Hamilton – e.hamilton@lancaster.ac.uk

2. Case presentation
• Brief overview of narrative and entrepreneurship
theory (our context)
• A tale of two researchers adopting frameworks from
early Western literary traditions

3. Narrative and entrepreneurship theory:
brief overview
• Relatively recent appearance in the literature
• Recognised as having the potential to contribute to
theory building
BUT ALSO
• To challenge dominant views of entrepreneurship as
individualistic and gender biased

4. The tale of two researchers
• Elicited life and career stories through in-depth
interviews
• How to analyse the empirical material?
– little elaboration of analysis in existing studies
– „more of an art than a science‟ (Riessman, 1993)
– „near anarchy in the field‟ (Mishler, 1995)
• Need for exemplars (Mishler, 1990)

5. Two different processes of analysis
McAdams’s (1997) framework /
seven features of narrative
Researcher 1 Researcher 2
Ricoeur (1991): time, life and Gergen (1994): progressive and
narrative regressive narratives
Frye’s (1957) Anatomy of
Aristotle’s Poetics
Criticism
epic tragedy (reversals, romantic comedy
recognitions and suffering)

6. Researcher 1
McAdams’s (1997) framework /
seven features of narrative
Ricoeur (1991): time, life and
narrative
Aristotle’s Poetics
epic tragedy (reversals,
recognitions and suffering)

7. 2
Researcher
McAdams’s (1997) framework /
seven features of narrative
Gergen (1994): progressive and
regressive narratives
Frye’s (1957) Anatomy of
Criticism
romantic comedy

8. Early Western literary traditions informing post-
modern research agendas
Narrative • The family and the
McAdams Aristotle
material business
Researcher 1
(Framework 1) (Framework 2) • Masking of the role
Empirical of the woman
Alluding to Aristotle /
material Reversals,
• Socially situated
Frye and early Western recognitions &
nature of learning
literary traditions suffering
Recorded
7 features of narrative:
interviews
•Narrative tone
•Imagery • The hybrid role of
Northrop Frye
•Theme Researcher 2 the franchisee
Written
(Framework 3)
•Ideological setting
transcripts • Positioning the self
•Nuclear episodes
as franchisee
Cyclical
•Imagoes
• Resistance to
movements in
•Generativity/endings
narrative franchisor control
• Reveal the literariness of the narrative accounts
• Uncover myths, metaphors and the role of emplotment

9. …and then …

10. Doing things with
(narrative) empirical material
A Tale of Three Research Approaches
Eleanor Hamilton e.hamilton@lancaster.ac.uk
Steve Fox s.fox@lancaster.ac.uk

11. Compare 3 forms of empirical material
1. In-depth interview (1:1 interview)
Ellie Hamilton (EH) with an entrepreneur [“Dave Walton” - DW]
2. Narrative-in-interaction (multiparty, 1:2 interview)
Ellie Hamilton (EH) with a couple [“John Draper” JD & “Mrs Draper” MD]
3. Narrative in interaction (ethnographic field notes)
Naturally occurring talk captured by Steve Fox (SF) with some Executive
MBA students

12. 3 kinds of communicative event
Key features of the narrative in the narrative canon emanate from
the „communicative event‟ in which it occurs:
– The research interview [prototypical interviewer as passive
audience, elicitor of the story, assymetrical relations lacking
intimacy]
– Interview narratives [co-constructed, co-authored, co-
draftings]
– Naturally occurring narratives in ordinary conversational
settings
Georgakopolou (2006: 237)

13. Interview with Dave Walton
EH Mmmm.
Now don‟t forget me wife was me father‟s bosses daughter so
DW
she‟d come from a business family, they were business people.
Most of her mother‟s brothers and sisters were in business, she
had a leaning towards business. I don‟t say she‟s business minded, she
isn‟t my wife is a, was a head teacher, she was in the teaching profession,
was a teacher at the time but she said why don‟t we buy it. And I went to
Mrs Jack and suggested this to her and she talked to me and said yes
she would and I‟d got a little bit of equity in the house, we hadn‟t lived
there long, but I got married in ‟57, this would be, I went into the business
on the first of January 1963 and on first of January 2003 I‟ve actually
been there forty years which is in a few months time. I‟ve still got that
business and I called it, their surname was Jack, and the people who
owned it before them their surname was Jack because it was a brother
and sister thing so I called it Jack‟s of Norton

14. Interview with DW contd.
Narrative themes Comments
• me wife was me father‟s bosses daughter • Business runs in families
• so, she‟d come from a business family • DW‟s wife came from a business
family
• she had a leaning towards business
• This doesn‟t mean she was business
• I don‟t say she‟s business minded
minded
• she was in the teaching profession,
• Here‟s why…
• but she said why don‟t we buy it.
• She seems to have made the decision
• And I went to Mrs Jack and suggested
• DW put it into action
this
• More on how business runs in
• I‟ve still got that business and I called it,
families..
their surname was Jack, and the people
who owned it before them their surname
was Jack because it was a brother and
sister thing so I called it Jack‟s of Norton

15. Interview with DW contd.
DW So then we decided we must leave the house because then you could have a
day off at home and just at the time then a piece of property came up for sale, it
was a farm house, and it was only two and a half miles from the business and it
was a farm house, three acre paddock, and farm buildings, not in too bad a
condition, it came up for auction. We went and looked at it and the wife and I
said yes we can live there and we went to the auction and bought it at auction.
We paid £14,500 for it and the trouble, the problem though, we weren‟t selling
anything. We weren‟t selling a house to buy a house and it was difficult so me
wife got the mortgage, she was a teacher, she was a head by this time and she
got the mortgage. And she browbeat the building society because even then
they were reluctant to let a woman have a mortgage, but she could as she was
in permanent employment, good prospects and it was permanent, you know it
was alright and she got the mortgage, so it‟s me wife‟s house and she always
says he lives there under sufferance, she always says that. I daren‟t put a foot
wrong in case she throws me out. So now that was the making of the business
because this farm with three acres of land had outbuildings, we were able then
to think of stocking a little bit more stuff for the shop and selling different things.

16. Interview with DW contd.
Narrative Themes Comments
• •
the wife and I said yes we can live there House purchase as joint decision
• she was a teacher, she was a head by
• Her economic capital, and social
this time and she got the mortgage
capital, used to obtain the house
• And she browbeat the building society
because even then they were reluctant to • Joke about the power that may be
let a woman have a mortgage associated with that ownership and
control
• so it‟s me wife‟s house and she always
says he lives there under sufferance, she
• Move allows the business to grow
always says that. I daren‟t put a foot
wrong in case she throws me out
• so now that was the making of the
business because this farm with three
acres of land had outbuildings, we were
able then to think of stocking a little bit
more stuff for the shop and selling
different things

17. Interview with John & Mrs Draper p.12
• MD Because I said, “we‟d have to get somebody more in the office”.
Because I came in one day after going out and getting some lunch for
us and John had the telephone in one hand and what were you doing
with the other one?
• JD I don‟t know.
• MD I know, I said, “this is ridiculous we can‟t carry on like this”. I
was doing all the ordering wasn‟t I, and everything. Because we
ordered the stuff and had it sent to the supplier, er to the
manufacturers to make up for us. And we just carried on from there.
Then the …….
• EH Did you enjoy that spell?
• MD Yes I did really I did. Until he used to shout at me (227) [laugh]
• JD You were gone three days weren‟t you?
• MD Because I can‟t stand it, you see. [laugh]
• JD You wanted to stay at home for three days.
• EH Just to keep you on your toes?
• JD Yes.

18. Interview with John & Mrs Draper p.13
Yes it was really. People couldn‟t believe how well we got on
MD
together, which I couldn‟t really [laugh]. But we did. We got on
well together. Just that once I left the office and stamped out.
JD I was muttering in me beer [laugh].
I said, “until you say you‟re sorry I‟m not coming back”. [laugh
MD
EH And the spelling.
That‟s what it was.
JD
MD Yes it was, it was over a letter that I typed three times. His a
terrible writer to understand the writing and when I couldn‟t spell
you see I couldn‟t do it properly and I was there late on real night,
late one night typing out stuff, because he‟d been out all day and
come back into the office late at night. But um, it was all right you
learnt your lesson [laugh].
JD I think it was one of the most wonderful periods of our lives
together.
MD Oh yes, yes, it was, it was fabulous. Fabulous.

19. Analytic points on the Draper‟s interview
p.12 note how MD cues JD to continue the „plot-line‟ but he declines
[1st few turns-in-talk]
Then Ellie (EH) cues her…
She (MD) responds and disses him…
He seems to justify himself – so there‟s a looming „breach‟
p.13 - Some repair work [1st few turns and closing lines]

20. Narratives in interaction: excerpts from an
Executive MBA classroom
• key features of the narrative in the narrative canon emanate
from the „communicative event‟ in which it occurs:
– The research interview [prototypical interviewer as
passive audience, elicitor of the story, assymetrical
relations lacking intimacy]
– Interview narratives [co-constructed, co-authored, co-
draftings]
– Naturally occurring narratives in ordinary conversational
settings
– Georgakopolou (2006: 237)

21. Narratives in interaction
21. OP: Contracts entered into by gentlemen will sooner or later be
22. executed by knaves
23. Sm: [laughter]
But isn‟t this true of all relationships, with great respect?
24. NL:
25. [Laughter]
26. Sm: [Pause]
27. NL: even in marriage!
28. Sm: [laughter]
O.K. Nick, just because we didn‟t all go to Cambridge!
29. OP:
30. Sm [laughter]
31. NL: [appealing to the lecturer] I was trying not to be
32. personal.
As soon as he says „with great respect‟ you know
33. OP:
34. T: Yes, start ducking when anybody says this..
35. NL: [pulls a face]
From Fox (2008: 747-8) Excerpt 1

22. Narratives in interaction
What about the loan which we as students don‟t know
54. MR:
It‟s in the figures as debentures
55. T:
56. [Pause]
57. MR: Ye-es.
58. NL: Everybody else found it Matthew!
59. Sm: [laughter]
60. DM: With great respect!
61. NL: No! With no respect!
You‟ll have to excuse Matthew(.) he works for „the Co-op‟
62. OP:
63. Sm: [laughter]
64. T: Now that (slight pause) was (slight pause) knavish!
65. Sm: [laughter]
From Fox (2008: ) Excerpt 2

23. Analytical points narratives in interaction
Lines 21-22 is a sort of story
It has gendered and classed connotations & usages
It is reprieved throughout both excerpts in locally situated ways
Catch-phrases are woven in [e.g. „with great respect‟]
These are re-used with comedic effect
The interaction itself unfolds as a performative & theatrical event,
i.e. in a „storyable‟ way (c.f. Sacks, 1981)
These events are „tellable‟ (Georgakopoulou, 2006) cf. „storyable‟
Lines 54-58 refer to a story (i.e. a business case study) they are
all supposed to have read
So there‟s intertextuality going on between the emergent narrative
plot and the case study
The case study primes the group as a cast of characters, but their
actual plot-lines are quite „emergent‟