The “Key” to Moving on: A Frame Analysis of Entrepreneurs’ Venture-failure Narratives for Public Audiences
分析了91篇失败博客文章，揭示创业者如何运用“键接”机制构建失败叙事，通过不同层次的解读组合来影响公众反应，为创业者如何向公众讲述失败故事提供了新视角。
Venture-failure is a common experience for many entrepreneurs, but the strategies they adopt in framing venture-failure narratives to public audiences is not well studied. Addressing this knowledge gap, the study examines how entrepreneurs construct stories that stimulate responses from public audiences during the “moving on” phase. Our analysis of 91 failure blog posts shows how entrepreneurs use framing mechanisms referred to as “keyings” that layer together literal interpretations and re-interpretations of failure. Moreover, we show how the layering of distinctly different primary and secondary keyings shape the tone of venture-failure narratives and stimulate legitimacy signals from audiences to try again. Our study advances the entrepreneurial failure literature by elaborating how failure narratives engage broad public audiences and why these matter as entrepreneurs move on to their next venture. We argue that keyings underpin these efforts by supporting integrative and dynamic presentations of failure to public audiences.