Always Trusts, Always Hopes, Always Perseveres? Comparative Discourse Analysis of the Perception of International Entrepreneurship During Pandemic

Abstract

Over the past three decades, the domain of international entrepreneurship (IE) has matured and developed into a field of study. However, there are still areas where both thematically and especially methodologically the field would benefit from more pluralistic approaches. Especially comparative IE studies have been suggested in review studies to provide substantial promise for added contribution to the field, and novel methodological choices based on content analysis and secondary data have been called for in IE research. This study aims to respond to those omissions in the IE domain, by conducting a comparative study of Finnish and Russian international entrepreneurship through a discourse analysis supported by primary data in the form of interviews of Finnish and Russian entrepreneurs. The COVID-19 pandemic arriving globally in the first half of 2020 provides a timely topic in which to conduct such a study. As a result, we analyse the discourse in Finnish and Russian media about entrepreneurship before (2019) and during (2020) the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in each country. We find both similarities and differences in the tone and level of the discussion, and surprisingly the interviewed entrepreneurs are rather critical of the media discussion related to entrepreneurship in the time of the pandemic in their respective countries. We consider the theoretical and methodological implications arising from these results and suggest that the IE field would benefit from the added methodological richness that content analysis and discursive research methods can provide.