Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

‘It’s Not Fair!’: Game and Affective Communities of Entrepreneurship

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Passion and Entrepreneurship

  • 408 Accesses

Abstract

In this chapter we take a cultural interpretative perspective on passion and entrepreneurship to explore how passions are discovered in becoming an embodied entrepreneur as part of community. Taking the view that an entrepreneur is always, already, a part of her social networks, passions emerge as an affective response to market uncertainty. In our analysis we trace the repetitive and culture-producing aspects of ritualistic play of the Werewolf social game as a part the of meaningful building of tech start-up community cultures. Through exploration of the repetitive game cycles, we highlight the role of game design in facilitating a spatial arrangement of conferences and networks as lived-spaces for becoming entrepreneurs, through which a community emerges. The werewolf gaming presents cyclical opportunities for the normalization of affective responses and offers embodied alternatives to the calculative or self-regulating roles of the conventional strategic risk-taker passions. Furthermore, we find that passions emerge in the game play as a response to game design rather than directed by the goal of winning.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Ahmed, S. (2004). Cultural politics of emotion. Abington and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anable, A. (2018). Playing with feelings. Video games and affect. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Andersen, N. Å. (2009). Power at play: The relationships between play, work and governance. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Appadurai, A. (2011). The ghost in the financial machine. Public Culture 23(3), 517–539. Duke University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Appadurai, A., & Alexander, N. (2019). Failure. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barlett, C., Branch, O., Rodeheffer, C., & Harris, R. (2009). How long do the short-term violent video game effects last? Aggressive Behavior, 35, 225–236.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baron, R.A. (2008) The Role of Affect in the Entrepreneurial Process. Academy of Management Review, 33(2), 328–340.

    Google Scholar 

  • Basso, F., Guillou, L., & Oullier, O. (2010). Embodied entrepreneurship: A sensory theory of value. In A. Stanton, M. Day, & I. Welpe (Eds.), Neuroeconomics and the firm (pp. 217–232). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beyes, T., & Steyaert, C. (2011). Spacing organization: Non-representational theory and performing organizational space. Organization, 19(1), 45–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bill, F., Jansson, A., & Olaison, L. (2010). The spectacle of entrepreneurship: A duality of flamboyance and activity. In (in)mobilizing the entrepreneurial discourse: Exploring entrepreneurial thinking and action (pp. 158–175). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Bille, M., Bjerregaard, & P., Sorensen, T. (2015). Staging atmospheres: Materiality, culture, and the texture of the in-between. Emotion, Space and Society, 15(May), 31–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Branzei, O., & Zietsma, C. (2003). Entrepreneurial love: The enabling functions of positive illusions in venturing, Paper presented at the Babson-Kauffman Entrepreneurial Research Conference, Wellesley, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brännback, M., Carsrud, A., Elfving, J., & Krueger, N. K. (2006). Sex, [drugs], and entrepreneurial passion? An exploratory study. Paper presented at the Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference, Bloomington, IN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brennan, T. (2004). The transmission of affect. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cardon, M. S., Wincent, J., Singh, J., & Drnovsek, M. (2009). The nature and experience of entrepreneurial passion. Academy of Management Review, 34(3), 511–532.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (2001). Optimism, pessimism, and self-regulation. In E. C. Chung (Ed.), Optimism and pessimism: Implications for theory, research, and practice. (pp. 31–51) Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collewaert, V., Anseel, F., Crommelinck, M., De Beuckelaer, A., & Vermeire, J. (2016). When passion fades: Disentangling the temporal dynamics of entrepreneurial passion for founding. Journal of Management Studies, 53, 966–995.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Certeau, M. (1984). The practice of everyday life. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, J., Pittaway, L., & Uzuegbunam, I. (2018). Simulations in entrepreneurship education: Serious games and learning through play. Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy, 1(1), 61–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gartner, W. B. (1988). “Who is an entrepreneur?” Is the wrong question. American Journal of Small Business., 12(4), 11–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gielnik, M., Spitzmuller, M., Schmitt, A., Klemann, K., & Frese, M. (2015). I put in effort, therefore I am passionate: Investigating the path from effort to passion in entrepreneurship. Academy of Management Journal, 58, 1012–1031.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Girdley, M. (2013, March 9). Why Werewolf matters at TechStars cloud. Start-Up Blog. Retrieved May 9, 2019, from https://girdley.com/why-werewolf-matters-at-techstars-cloud/.

  • Hartmann, T., & Vorderer, P. (2010). It’s okay to shoot a character: Moral disengagement in violent video games. Journal of Communication, 60, 94–119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hirschman, A. O. (1977). The passions and the interests: Political arguments for capitalism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hjorth, D. (2007). Lessons from Iago: Narrating the event of entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing, 22, 712–732.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huizinga, J. (1955). Homo ludens: A study of the play-element in culture. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marshall, D. A. (2002). Behavior, belonging, and belief: A theory of ritual practice. Sociological Theory, 20(3), 360–380. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9558.00168

  • Martin, L. L., & Stoner, P. (1996). Mood as input: What we think about how we feel determines how we think. In L. L. Martin & A. Tesser (Eds.), Striving and feeling: Iterations among goals, affect, and self-regulation (pp. 279–301). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massumi, B. (2002). Parables for the virtual: Movement, affect, sensation. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Michael, D., & Chen, S. (2006). Serious games: Games that educate, train and inform. Boston: Thomson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Michels, C. (2015) Researching affective atmospheres. Geographica Helvetica, 70(4), 255–263.

    Google Scholar 

  • Michels, C., & Steyaert, C. (2017). By accident and by design: Composing affective atmospheres in an urban art intervention. Organization, 24(1), 79–104.

    Google Scholar 

  • Migdał, P. A (2013). Mathematical model of the mafia game. Online. Retrieved May 9, 2019, from https://arxiv.org/abs/1009.1031.

  • Newsgeist. (2019). Exploring the future of news. Online website. Retrieved May 9, 2019, from https://www.newsgeist.org/exploring-future-news/.

  • Olaison, L., & Taalas, S. (2017). Game of Gamification: Marketing, consumer resistance and digital play. In M. Dymek & P. Zackariasson (Eds.), The Business of Gamification: A Critical Analysis. Routledge advances in management and business studies (Vol. 65, pp. 59–80). Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parviainen, J., & Kortelainen, I. (2019). Becoming fully present in your body: Analysing mindfulness as an affective investment in tech culture. Somatechnics, 9(3), 353–375.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poldner, K., Branzei, O., & Steyaert, C. (2019). Fashioning ethical subjectivity: The embodied ethics of entrepreneurial self-formation. Organization, 26(2), 151–174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rehn, A., & Taalas, S. (2004). “Znakomstva I Svyazi” (acquaintances and connections)—Blat, the Soviet Union, and mundane entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 16(3), 235–250.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ritterfeld, U., Cody, M., & Vorderer, P. (Eds.). (2009). Serious games: Mechanisms and effects. New York/London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robertson, M. (2010, February 4). Werewolf: How a parlour game became a tech phenomenon. Wired Magazine. Online. Retrieved May 9, 2019, from https://www.wired.co.uk/article/werewolf.

  • Steyaert, C. (1995). Perpetuating entrepreneurship through dialogue. A social constructionist view. PhD dissertation, Leuven.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steyaert, C. (1998). A qualitative methodology for process studies of entrepreneurship. International Studies of Management and Organisation, 27(3), 13–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner, V. (1974). Liminal to liminoid in play, flow, and ritual: An essay in comparative symbology. Rice University Studies, 60(3), 53–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vallerand, R. J., Mageau, G. A., Ratelle, C., Leonard, M., Blanchard, C., Koestner, R., & Gagne, M. 2003. Les passions de l’ ame: On obsessive and harmonious passion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85: 756–767

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Gennep, A. (1909/1960). The rites of passage. London and Henley: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vitry, C., Sage, D., & Dainty, A. (2020). Affective atmospheres of sensemaking and learning: Workplace meetings as aesthetic and anaesthetic. Management Learning. Online First. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507619893930

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Independent Scholar, Manchester, UK

    Laura Mitchell

  2. Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden

    Saara L. Taalas

Authors
  1. Laura Mitchell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Saara L. Taalas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Enrico Baraldi

  2. Department of Economics and Management, University of Florence, Florence, Italy

    Simone Guercini

  3. Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Marcus Lindahl

  4. Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Andrea Perna

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Mitchell, L., Taalas, S.L. (2020). ‘It’s Not Fair!’: Game and Affective Communities of Entrepreneurship. In: Baraldi, E., Guercini, S., Lindahl, M., Perna, A. (eds) Passion and Entrepreneurship. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47933-6_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation