Propaganda or Persuasion: Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Campaign in China

• In Event: Startups, Innovation, Technology, and the Entrepreneurship Economy

Abstract

Abstract
This paper locates the impetus for many start-ups in China in an on-going public policy campaign called Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation (MEI), an initiative that encouraging the general public to make innovations and start businesses. Organizational communication cannot be seen as simply emerging inside organizations, but it should also be seen as about organizations and the process of institution building (Weick). This case is called “Double Chuang” because the language of innovation and entrepreneurship start with the Chinese character “Chuang (创).” This initiative involves three major parties interested in creating organizations: potential entrepreneurs, governments at all levels, and existing companies. Overall, the MEI narrative is worthy of study: it is large-scaled, on-going, and controversial. It involves the strategic communication of both online and offline messages by large government organizations and advocacy from innovation incubators at national, provincial, and municipal level collaborating with mainstream media (Christenson & Cheney).

Based on the domestic and international context, the present paper conducts a thematic visual analysis of 10 representative campaign materials, including both publicity videos and news articles in the light of persuasive effects. The analysis reveals that episodic and punctuated framing was used to create the environment to scaffold start-up discourse and supportive communication for risk-taking. It also found that MEI discourse is seen shifting from early reliance on propaganda to persuasion based the success stories emerging from start-ups. This paper also looks at public discourse from individual entrepreneurs and start-up leaders as they respond to the public narrative that frames their personal stories (Fairhurst, Taylor).

Authors

• Yiyan Zhang, Boston University

• Tammy R. Vigil, Boston U