Purpose of the extended abstract. This extended abstract analyzes how "Made in Italy" companies manage the narrative sensemaking of their message within the context of digital storytelling strategies. Those Italian companies that place the "Made in Italy" value at the forefront of their communication plans are included in the 3F sector: Fashion, Food and Furniture. These companies rely on the "Made in Italy" concept as a meaningful narration in their digital storytelling strategies. "Made in Italy" - a concept that has been declared the third most famous brand in the world by the public, stakeholders and a KPMG research1, is a well-defined and meaningful tale, applied to every facet of Italian manufacture. The way companies communicate is set in a sign universe which is, in itself, incomplete and natenarrative (Boje, 2001), where communication on products and services offered is constantly attacked on the market by counternarratives (Gabriel, 1995) that aim to delegitimize their value and authenticity. So companies always strive to create coherent stories (Weick, 1995), that are interconnected and petrified (Czarniawska, 2004) in order to allow stakeholders to build a universe of symbols, a meaning, and engage them through their involvement and identification, and lastly by diminishing the informative asymmetry (Martens, Jennings, Jennings, 2007) with the audience by building up meaning. As with the offline, companies' online storytelling feeds on this semiotic incompleteness (Ferraro, 2015). In order to try and increase the level of signification, companies' communications are based on defined meanings. However the ubiquity, interactivity and sharing that are at the core of social networks and blogging platforms allow the antenarratives and counternarratives to modify the connections between stories that the company creates and tries to control in order to create meaning from its communication, thus creating a chaotic, vague and meaningless message. Placing a meaningful narrative such as the Made in Italy at the core of one's narration, for a company that sells products manufactured in Italy, brings about the ability to create meaning that can be interpreted by part of the audience and stakeholders. Once the company's narration has been enunciated, those developed by the audience can modify the original narration based on their liquidity, dynamism and transformation. Counter-narrations try to modify the original narrative while antenarratives modify it by reinterpreting it. Lack of control ensues, and the company storyteller tries to steer the narration a certain way in order not to lose its petrified qualities. Online, narrations are destined to change due to the open structure of social networking and blogging platforms, as the goal itself of messages is to be commented on, noticed and shared. These are alive albeit raw narrations that, once entered in digital platforms, grow due to the constant antenarratives and counternarratives brought on by the public and the stakeholders. So ultimately, narration is destined to change. Unlike literary narrations with a definite and monological form (Bruner, 1992), company narrations are fragmented, also defined as 'living stories' (Boje, 2001), set in a wide web of pre-meaning. If on the one hand you place petrified narrative, on the other hand you'll find this type of living stories, dynamic narrations that modify - be it by destroying or integrating them - the petrified quality of narratives. The thesis brought on by Czarniawska (2004), for whom companies' petrified narratives are slow to change and repeat themselves, continue over time and on different platforms, are worth less today due to the speed of messages signification change in social networks and blogging / contents sharing platforms. Storytelling is always unanimous in this environment and authorship doesn't involve just the company: once a message has been posted, the company relinquishes control over it (Henderson, 2015). A company that focuses on Made in Italy creates a meaning as much petrified as possible so that it can direct coherent and defined messages towards the public and stakeholders and lessen informative asymmetry. Digital story-telling creates meaningful narrations thanks to the creation and managing of the connections between the single stories that are produced on the one hand by the company and on the other hand by the public and stakeholders. This research studies the ways that Made in Italy companies create and manage these connections, which are the real narrativebuilders that must be as coherent and meaningful as possible to be effective. Methodology. Narrative interviews are conducted on entrepreneurial Made in Italy cases (3F: Fashion, Food and Furniture). The examined cases show how to build up meaning through the connections of the enunciated stories by using digital storytelling in order to engage the public and stakeholders and kickstart an interpretation and identification process over the message and the story. We will start by answering these three questions: RQ1: Is Made in Italy such a meaningful narration that it's used by companies on a semiotic base on which to lean the antenarratives and with which to defend oneself from counternarratives in order to create meaning in digital storytelling company strategies? RQ2: Provided that Made in Italy carries a definite, complete and coherent message, which other similar meaningful narratives have been used by companies to carry the message and handle antenarratives and counternarratives that show up on the market once the story is told? RQ3: Are the effectiveness of the message and the lessening of the informative asymmetry given by control over antenarratives that lean on the meaningful storytelling of Made in Italy or, vice-versa, is the constant reinterpretation of meaningful storytelling such as Made in Italy that makes the enunciated message effective? Answering these three questions defines which are the meaningful narratives that companies can use in order to make their message meaningful to the public and stakeholders. For instance, should fashion company Dolce & Gabbana starts using Sicily and its values as a meaningful message for the 2013/2014 fall/winter campaign, connecting the beauty of the products being advertised to the baroque Sicilian style, it would mean that the message being carried out is supported by a sensemaking device, that Sicily's values and Italy's in general are accepted and shared and therefore all other future antenarratives of the company and the public and the potential counternarratives deriving therefrom will be on the one hand supported and on the other hand counter-attacked by message that is coherent, strong, resistant to re-interpretations and carries a lot of meaning. This means that informative asymmetry between brand and public diminishes. So Made in Italy becomes a meaningful vector to use in order to better reach the public. We'll find out which other "Italian values narratives" are used by Made in Italy companies in order to convey relevant messages to the public and stakeholders. Online, where managing the meaning of a message is always under attack due to narrative incursions by the public, the more meaningful messages are therefore easier to manage. Indeed, being a part of the 3F sector means supporting the value of one's communication on a shared meaning such as Made in Italy, even though in the digital world the condition is the loss of control over one's narrative authorship. Being able to manage the connections that are created among each counternarrative and antenarrative in the market allows to come out with a definite meaning, though cyclical and incomplete it might be, and lastly to begin an interpretation process that diminishes informative asymmetry between the company and the public. Comparing the various uses of meaningful narratives that support other types of stories highlights the effectiveness of a certain type of narrative, such as Made in Italy, when compared to others. Findings. The results intend to assess if Made in Italy is a fully meaningful and coherent narrative in digital company storytelling activities or if the company needs to activate other storytelling activities that reinterpret the message so that it can ultimately be defined as petrified, and coherent and emplotted. Researchers ask if the role played by Made in Italy entails being an instrument for the companies for their own storytelling, or an instrument that reinterprets and increases the value of an already meaningful narrative and indirectly reflects value upon the company's brand. The interviews that will been conducted aim to try and understand whether a meaningful message is always subject to antearratives and counternarratives that try to change its sensemaking, especially online, where the public input is direct and non-filtered. Finally, the results should demonstrate that basing the company antenarratives on meaningful and shared storytelling helps companies to lessen the effect of counternarratives and defend the meaning of the message in the digital arena by building "rails" where to run the more coherent meaning of the narration to be pushed forward. The research analyzes types of storytelling in order to demonstrate how the public, through antenarratives, has actually forced companies to change the meaning of some of the messages pushed forward inside digital storytelling campaigns in a constant elastic interpretation process between the message that has been pushed forward and public stories. From the company standpoint it is expected to give up control over the meaning of the message as soon as the public starts producing content that can undermine it. Results should then demonstrate on the one hand the sudden loss of control over the meaning by company storytellers and on the other hand their need to manage the continuous and cyclical reinterpretation of the message. Research limits. The data that will be gathered comes from narrative interviews, which entail the methodological limit to bring out elements that the researcher did not anticipate and hide others, thus denying interviewed subjects the real experience. At the moment, qualitative analysis isn't supported by quantitative data. This first research will be followed by future studies on a quantitative basis. Practical implications. Analyzing the use of digital storytelling strategies by Made in Italy companies brings to a higher understanding of company narrative instruments. Focusing on building up meaningful phrases allows companies to sustain their communications by starting with coherent, shared and meaningful messages on which to base the other incoherent and antenarrative stories that are inherent to digital (and, more broadly, entrepreneurial) communication. That's how companies can build up a set of meaningful tools, composed of shared stories with which to accompany future communications. This paper analyzes an early example of meaningful narrative: the “Made in Italy”. The research also demonstrates how the company storyteller is tasked with managing the reinterpretation of company messages after content has been posted. Losing control over its meaning is an imminent and constant condition of the analyzed cases, and the storyteller begins from this realization in order to steer its new and reinterpreted meaning to maintain a meaningful and relevant message and lessen the informative asymmetry between stakeholders and company. Originality of the work. Literature has studied the role of antenarratives in modifying petrified stories of company messages and dominating narratives. Company narrations live in a chaotic and organic environment, where the meaningful basis is given by the interconnection between authors and those who interpret the message and the subsequent co-creation of the message. For the first time in literature the point of view of an intangible asset such as Made in Italy is being used as a 'semiotic base' for all digital antenarratives that use them in their communications, aiming to lessen the informative asymmetry between company and public. Researchers will study the possibility of Made in Italy companies to create a set of meaningful narratives in order to convey messages that act as a narrative base from which to convey all subsequent antenarrative stories that the company intends to communicate. Italian values then become a meaningful and coherent semiotic base, useful for companies to effectively communicate with the public and stakeholders.

Managing narrative sensemaking in digital storytelling strategies for “Made in Italy” companies, 2016-06.

Managing narrative sensemaking in digital storytelling strategies for “Made in Italy” companies

ROMENTI, STEFANIA;MIGLIETTA, ANGELO
2016-06-01

Abstract

Purpose of the extended abstract. This extended abstract analyzes how "Made in Italy" companies manage the narrative sensemaking of their message within the context of digital storytelling strategies. Those Italian companies that place the "Made in Italy" value at the forefront of their communication plans are included in the 3F sector: Fashion, Food and Furniture. These companies rely on the "Made in Italy" concept as a meaningful narration in their digital storytelling strategies. "Made in Italy" - a concept that has been declared the third most famous brand in the world by the public, stakeholders and a KPMG research1, is a well-defined and meaningful tale, applied to every facet of Italian manufacture. The way companies communicate is set in a sign universe which is, in itself, incomplete and natenarrative (Boje, 2001), where communication on products and services offered is constantly attacked on the market by counternarratives (Gabriel, 1995) that aim to delegitimize their value and authenticity. So companies always strive to create coherent stories (Weick, 1995), that are interconnected and petrified (Czarniawska, 2004) in order to allow stakeholders to build a universe of symbols, a meaning, and engage them through their involvement and identification, and lastly by diminishing the informative asymmetry (Martens, Jennings, Jennings, 2007) with the audience by building up meaning. As with the offline, companies' online storytelling feeds on this semiotic incompleteness (Ferraro, 2015). In order to try and increase the level of signification, companies' communications are based on defined meanings. However the ubiquity, interactivity and sharing that are at the core of social networks and blogging platforms allow the antenarratives and counternarratives to modify the connections between stories that the company creates and tries to control in order to create meaning from its communication, thus creating a chaotic, vague and meaningless message. Placing a meaningful narrative such as the Made in Italy at the core of one's narration, for a company that sells products manufactured in Italy, brings about the ability to create meaning that can be interpreted by part of the audience and stakeholders. Once the company's narration has been enunciated, those developed by the audience can modify the original narration based on their liquidity, dynamism and transformation. Counter-narrations try to modify the original narrative while antenarratives modify it by reinterpreting it. Lack of control ensues, and the company storyteller tries to steer the narration a certain way in order not to lose its petrified qualities. Online, narrations are destined to change due to the open structure of social networking and blogging platforms, as the goal itself of messages is to be commented on, noticed and shared. These are alive albeit raw narrations that, once entered in digital platforms, grow due to the constant antenarratives and counternarratives brought on by the public and the stakeholders. So ultimately, narration is destined to change. Unlike literary narrations with a definite and monological form (Bruner, 1992), company narrations are fragmented, also defined as 'living stories' (Boje, 2001), set in a wide web of pre-meaning. If on the one hand you place petrified narrative, on the other hand you'll find this type of living stories, dynamic narrations that modify - be it by destroying or integrating them - the petrified quality of narratives. The thesis brought on by Czarniawska (2004), for whom companies' petrified narratives are slow to change and repeat themselves, continue over time and on different platforms, are worth less today due to the speed of messages signification change in social networks and blogging / contents sharing platforms. Storytelling is always unanimous in this environment and authorship doesn't involve just the company: once a message has been posted, the company relinquishes control over it (Henderson, 2015). A company that focuses on Made in Italy creates a meaning as much petrified as possible so that it can direct coherent and defined messages towards the public and stakeholders and lessen informative asymmetry. Digital story-telling creates meaningful narrations thanks to the creation and managing of the connections between the single stories that are produced on the one hand by the company and on the other hand by the public and stakeholders. This research studies the ways that Made in Italy companies create and manage these connections, which are the real narrativebuilders that must be as coherent and meaningful as possible to be effective. Methodology. Narrative interviews are conducted on entrepreneurial Made in Italy cases (3F: Fashion, Food and Furniture). The examined cases show how to build up meaning through the connections of the enunciated stories by using digital storytelling in order to engage the public and stakeholders and kickstart an interpretation and identification process over the message and the story. We will start by answering these three questions: RQ1: Is Made in Italy such a meaningful narration that it's used by companies on a semiotic base on which to lean the antenarratives and with which to defend oneself from counternarratives in order to create meaning in digital storytelling company strategies? RQ2: Provided that Made in Italy carries a definite, complete and coherent message, which other similar meaningful narratives have been used by companies to carry the message and handle antenarratives and counternarratives that show up on the market once the story is told? RQ3: Are the effectiveness of the message and the lessening of the informative asymmetry given by control over antenarratives that lean on the meaningful storytelling of Made in Italy or, vice-versa, is the constant reinterpretation of meaningful storytelling such as Made in Italy that makes the enunciated message effective? Answering these three questions defines which are the meaningful narratives that companies can use in order to make their message meaningful to the public and stakeholders. For instance, should fashion company Dolce & Gabbana starts using Sicily and its values as a meaningful message for the 2013/2014 fall/winter campaign, connecting the beauty of the products being advertised to the baroque Sicilian style, it would mean that the message being carried out is supported by a sensemaking device, that Sicily's values and Italy's in general are accepted and shared and therefore all other future antenarratives of the company and the public and the potential counternarratives deriving therefrom will be on the one hand supported and on the other hand counter-attacked by message that is coherent, strong, resistant to re-interpretations and carries a lot of meaning. This means that informative asymmetry between brand and public diminishes. So Made in Italy becomes a meaningful vector to use in order to better reach the public. We'll find out which other "Italian values narratives" are used by Made in Italy companies in order to convey relevant messages to the public and stakeholders. Online, where managing the meaning of a message is always under attack due to narrative incursions by the public, the more meaningful messages are therefore easier to manage. Indeed, being a part of the 3F sector means supporting the value of one's communication on a shared meaning such as Made in Italy, even though in the digital world the condition is the loss of control over one's narrative authorship. Being able to manage the connections that are created among each counternarrative and antenarrative in the market allows to come out with a definite meaning, though cyclical and incomplete it might be, and lastly to begin an interpretation process that diminishes informative asymmetry between the company and the public. Comparing the various uses of meaningful narratives that support other types of stories highlights the effectiveness of a certain type of narrative, such as Made in Italy, when compared to others. Findings. The results intend to assess if Made in Italy is a fully meaningful and coherent narrative in digital company storytelling activities or if the company needs to activate other storytelling activities that reinterpret the message so that it can ultimately be defined as petrified, and coherent and emplotted. Researchers ask if the role played by Made in Italy entails being an instrument for the companies for their own storytelling, or an instrument that reinterprets and increases the value of an already meaningful narrative and indirectly reflects value upon the company's brand. The interviews that will been conducted aim to try and understand whether a meaningful message is always subject to antearratives and counternarratives that try to change its sensemaking, especially online, where the public input is direct and non-filtered. Finally, the results should demonstrate that basing the company antenarratives on meaningful and shared storytelling helps companies to lessen the effect of counternarratives and defend the meaning of the message in the digital arena by building "rails" where to run the more coherent meaning of the narration to be pushed forward. The research analyzes types of storytelling in order to demonstrate how the public, through antenarratives, has actually forced companies to change the meaning of some of the messages pushed forward inside digital storytelling campaigns in a constant elastic interpretation process between the message that has been pushed forward and public stories. From the company standpoint it is expected to give up control over the meaning of the message as soon as the public starts producing content that can undermine it. Results should then demonstrate on the one hand the sudden loss of control over the meaning by company storytellers and on the other hand their need to manage the continuous and cyclical reinterpretation of the message. Research limits. The data that will be gathered comes from narrative interviews, which entail the methodological limit to bring out elements that the researcher did not anticipate and hide others, thus denying interviewed subjects the real experience. At the moment, qualitative analysis isn't supported by quantitative data. This first research will be followed by future studies on a quantitative basis. Practical implications. Analyzing the use of digital storytelling strategies by Made in Italy companies brings to a higher understanding of company narrative instruments. Focusing on building up meaningful phrases allows companies to sustain their communications by starting with coherent, shared and meaningful messages on which to base the other incoherent and antenarrative stories that are inherent to digital (and, more broadly, entrepreneurial) communication. That's how companies can build up a set of meaningful tools, composed of shared stories with which to accompany future communications. This paper analyzes an early example of meaningful narrative: the “Made in Italy”. The research also demonstrates how the company storyteller is tasked with managing the reinterpretation of company messages after content has been posted. Losing control over its meaning is an imminent and constant condition of the analyzed cases, and the storyteller begins from this realization in order to steer its new and reinterpreted meaning to maintain a meaningful and relevant message and lessen the informative asymmetry between stakeholders and company. Originality of the work. Literature has studied the role of antenarratives in modifying petrified stories of company messages and dominating narratives. Company narrations live in a chaotic and organic environment, where the meaningful basis is given by the interconnection between authors and those who interpret the message and the subsequent co-creation of the message. For the first time in literature the point of view of an intangible asset such as Made in Italy is being used as a 'semiotic base' for all digital antenarratives that use them in their communications, aiming to lessen the informative asymmetry between company and public. Researchers will study the possibility of Made in Italy companies to create a set of meaningful narratives in order to convey messages that act as a narrative base from which to convey all subsequent antenarrative stories that the company intends to communicate. Italian values then become a meaningful and coherent semiotic base, useful for companies to effectively communicate with the public and stakeholders.
giu-2016
digital storytelling; Made in Italy; entrepreneurship; antenarrative; counternarratives
Managing narrative sensemaking in digital storytelling strategies for “Made in Italy” companies, 2016-06.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10808/16544
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