is goffman’s the best framework for understanding pitches to industry analysts?
TRANSCRIPT
Is Goffman’s the best framework for
understanding pitches to industry
analysts?
Christian Hampel, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz
Duncan Chapple, University of Edinburgh Business School
Why Goffman?
Duncan Erving Christian
• Graduate student in University of Edinburgh
Entrepreneurship and Innovation group
• Researching the influence, and influencing, of
IT and telecoms industry analysts
Work in progress Christian Hampel & Duncan Chapple
• The 6th most cited author in the humanities
and social sciences
• “Presentation of Self in Everyday Life” 1959
• “Frame analysis” 1974
• “Forms of talk” 1981
• Graduate psychology student at Johannes
Gutenberg University of Mainz
• Thesis at the department of Business,
Organisational and Industrial Psychology
Work in progress Christian Hampel & Duncan Chapple
Research Processand what are analyst pitches?
01 Research question
• How satisfactory is Goffman’s theory of impression management in understanding and explaining interactions in analyst pitches?
• Definition: formal oral presentations, both online and offline, by vendors of ICT solutions to industry analysts
• Is there a better theory than Goffman’s to understand analyst pitches?
02 Literature review
Theories of impression management
• Goffman‘s stage analogy
• Later development
• Karin Knorr Cetina, 2009
• Trevor Pinch, 2010
• Liam Bullingham &
Ana Vasconcelos, 2013
03 Method
• March: 12+ interviews with
analysts
• April: 12+ interviews with
vendors
• Quirkos: Qualitative analysis
Work in progress Christian Hampel & Duncan Chapple
Research Process
04 Questionnaire
Topics:
• Status
• Acceptance/ challenge of definitions
• Biographies
• Self-Promotion
• Namedropping
• Bragging
• Compliments
• The stage
• Artifacts
• Body language
05 Results
90 quotes fit Goffman’s framework
5 quotes extend Goffman’s framework
11 quotes do not fit Goffman’s framework
06 Discussion
• Are there things we should change in our questionnaire
when talking to industry analysts / AR professionals?
• Are there theoretical frameworks that are more appropriate in
understanding pitches?
05 Results
Some findings fit Goffman‘s framework, others do not
Work progress Christian Hampel & Duncan Chapple
Distribution and examples of quotes by framework
Goffman “Goffman plus” Not Goffman
Compliments:
Yes, they will do that quite likely.
They will say we have read such
and such that you wrote or we like
this peace or thank you for doing
that. Yes, maybe they would do
that.
Name-dropping:
Well, it varies. In the worst case
scenarios you have people who try
to establish all of their credibility by
namedropping.
Favour-doing:
the smart vendors figure out what the
bonus plan is for the analysts at large
analyst firms and they act accordingly.
And so they know that if an analyst is
compensated on the amount of
research they produce well then they
will help provide them with material
that makes it very easy to produce the
report.
Intimidation:
the threat of lawsuit is always out
there , the threat of I’m going to get
you fired, the threat of I’m going to call
other vendors and tell them not to
spend Any money with you guys you
know that all happens.
Sociology of expectation?
…only staying on their single version of
things that that becomes a weakness
because ultimately the environment
changes. If you’re not open to new ideas
and new ways of Thinking that’s not going
to serve you well”
Coaching?
…he literally blew up at the interviewer
and walked out. You know when something
like that happens... there’s a lot of people
that get paid a lot to coach someone like
that on what to say and what to do and
when they blow up… that’s a sign right
there, it told me this company is going to
implode. That one single event told me.
90
Work in progress Christian Hampel & Duncan Chapple
5 11
Work in progress Christian Hampel & Duncan Chapple
Research Process
04 Questionnaire
Topics:
• Status
• Acceptance/ challenge of definitions
• Biographies
• Self-Promotion
• Namedropping
• Bragging
• Compliments
• The stage
• Artifacts
• Body language
05 Results
90 quotes fit Goffman’s framework
5 quotes extend Goffman’s framework
11 quotes do not fit Goffman’s framework
06 Discussion
• Are there things we should change in our questionnaire
when talking to industry analysts / AR professionals?
• Are there theoretical frameworks that are more appropriate in
understanding pitches?
Questions?
Christian Hampel, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz
Duncan Chapple, University of Edinburgh Business School