Sensemaking, rhetoric and the socially competent entrepreneur

A significant barrier to creating and sustaining firms are the difficulties experienced in continually legitimating their institutional structures. This is especially the case for small firms; entrepreneurs struggle to create and sustain often novel ideas and nascent firm structures set within, or against, well-established market environments. To better understand connections between organization formation and legitimacy of small firms we use accounts from three entrepreneurs. We break down their accounts using Aristotle’s concept of rhetoric. By attending to what Aristotle identified as the three areas of concern for rhetorical method ( logos, ethos and pathos) to analyse the entrepreneurs’ sensemaking, we show their awareness of the negotiated, situated and social nature of their enterprises. Our findings expand on existing concepts such as Lounsbury and Glynn’s (2001) ‘cultural entrepreneurship’, by demonstrating how collaborative sensemaking might be practised and how social competence and an awareness of others’ needs, wishes, ambitions and objectives are central to the foundation and potential success of small firms.