Straight OUTTA Detroit: Embracing Stigma as Part of the Entrepreneurial Narrative Birton J. Cowden, Joshua S. Bendickson, Blake D. Mathias, and Shelby J. Solomon
Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 59, No. 8 ( December 2022), pp. 1915-1949
OVERVIEW
This inductive field study set out to clarify how and why ventures embrace a noncore stigma. Most of the stigma literature suggests that organizations tend to avoid/disidentify from anything or anyone associated with stigma. We focus on locational stigma, which we define as a collective, stakeholder group-specific perception that an organization’s geographic location indicates a fundamental flaw that discredits it and prevents their desire to identify with it. We find that entrepreneurs in Detroit, Mich., embrace locational stigma as an underdog comeback narrative. They promote it to differentiate their ventures as heroic and to gain access to in-group advantages and resources. Our work is novel in showing how locational stigma can benefit organizations.
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