The interaction between rational arguments and emotional appeals in the entrepreneurial pitch
International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research
ISSN: 1355-2554
Article publication date: 18 October 2019
Issue publication date: 8 May 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This study is concerned with the perlocutionary force of emotional strategies in entrepreneurship discourse. The purpose of this paper is to determine to what extent, and under what circumstances, emotional appeals may be effective to convince the conversational partner in entrepreneurship discourse.
Design/methodology/approach
To examine the interaction between rational and emotional appeals this paper analyses a corpus formed by several examples of the “elevator pitch” genre, which have been taken from a TV programme called Tu Oportunidad (Your Chance), the Spanish counterpart of the British Dragon’s Den and the American Shark Tank. Using the information gathered in the discursive analysis of the corpus, the paper establishes a template that identifies the main rational and emotional aspects that characterize the entrepreneurial pitch. In a second stage of the research, the template is used to conduct a quantitative analysis of the persuasive influence of rational and emotional aspects.
Findings
The results of the qualitative and quantitative research show that there is a clear correlation between the propensity to finance entrepreneurial ventures and the presence of rational aspects in the entrepreneurial pitch. The lack of rational arguments determines the failure of the entrepreneur’s efforts to be persuasive, regardless of the emotional appeals that are introduced into the pitch. Emotional appeals prove to be useful to reinforce rational arguments but they are not sufficiently persuasive on their own.
Originality/value
The paper offers insight into the criteria that investors take into account in order to evaluate entrepreneurial projects, as well as on the strategies that entrepreneurs should develop to build a successful business pitch.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology in Spain under Grant No. FFI2013-47792-C2-2-P (“Emotion and Language ‘at Work’: The Discursive Emotive/Evaluative Function in Different Texts and Contexts within Corporate and Institutional Work: Project Persuasion”). The authors would like to thank their colleagues, Maite del Val Nuñez, Felipe Cano Ventas and Santiago Ramón Torres, as well as the students of the University of Alcalá’s Faculty of Economics, Business Studies and Tourism, for their help with this research.
This paper forms part of a special section “Knowledge, Business, and Innovation. Economies and sustainability of future growth”.
Citation
Fernández-Vázquez, J.-S. and Álvarez-Delgado, R.-C. (2020), "The interaction between rational arguments and emotional appeals in the entrepreneurial pitch", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 26 No. 3, pp. 503-520. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-06-2019-0334
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited