Carlos Poblete
Entrepreneurship is widely promoted as an inherently desirable and socially valuable career path, yet this promotion often obscures structural constraints, uneven outcomes, and high failure rates.
While prior research has documented the risks of excessive entrepreneurial encouragement, less attention has been paid to the discursive processes through which entrepreneurship becomes normalized as a moral and identity-based imperative. This study develops a process-based, discursive account of normative entrepreneurial identity formation.
Drawing on narrative identity theory, master narrative research, and the concept of symbolic capital, the study analyzes the televised discourses of high-prestige entrepreneurs featured in a Chilean motivational TV show using Critical Discourse Analysis. The findings reveal a three-stage process through which personal success stories acquire normative force: discursive authorization, narrative standardization, and normative identity closure. Through this process, entrepreneurial narratives function as cultural templates that define legitimate entrepreneurial identity while backgrounding structural conditions.
The study contributes by theorizing overpromotion as a symbolic normalization process, highlighting how entrepreneurial discourse regulates identity rather than merely inspiring action.
