JIBS Working Papers,
Jönköping International Business School

Abstract: We look at the potential of novelists to be producers of entrepreneurship and the novel as a potential carrier and product of entrepreneurship. Our argument is that some novelists challenge established norms and institutions and that some novels can be seen as products that aim to destroy the old, or at least improve the old, and give way to something new. We draw on the work of a classic Swedish novelist Carl-Johan Love Almqvist, and his novel – Why Not! (Det går an!, 1839). We combine a narrative approach with an interpretive framework from institutional entrepreneurship and literary theory. Almqvist uses the novel as a form of representation and carrier of ideas that challenge the established roles of women in society and economy. While contemporary literature on institutional entrepreneurship tends to focus on representations of accomplished change, our focus on narrative fiction also allows an emphasis on representations of change opportunities. Concentrating on the opportunity to change and taking a narrative approach, we put creativity and time at the heart of the process of institutional entrepreneurship, rather than merely action and change

Keywords: Institutional entrepreneurship; novel; narrative approach; institutional change

28 pages, November 17, 2010

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