Entrepreneurial narratives for resource acquisition in the Italian creative industries. A qualitative study

The study examines how narratives help creative Italian entrepreneurs attract resources. Drawing on a case study (Officina Creativa) and integrating the literature on entrepreneurial narratives and resource acquisition, the paper develops five propositions about the use of storytelling, impression management, and social networking. Findings show that Officina Creativa conveys narrative strategies mainly through direct oral storytelling and a few basic written texts (website, presentations), with social networking and storytelling being the most used strategies, while the potential of storytelling (particularly around future scenarios) remains under-exploited, as does impression management, which is limited to partial communication of technical competences. As a result, the informative signals sent to resource holders are quite limited. The qualitative study is described as the first step of a larger project that will combine qualitative and quantitative data, and is presented as the first attempt to understand how entrepreneurial narrative strategies are successfully implemented in the Italian creative industry.