Linguistic attributes in entrepreneurs' funding campaign descriptions play an important role in attracting resources. Going beyond examining the effect of individual linguistic attributes, this study takes a portfolio approach by viewing a narrative as a portfolio or collection of linguistic attributes. Specifically, we posit a narrative as a portfolio of “speech acts” and examine the combined effects of select speech acts based on their variation within a narrative. Speech acts are actions that a communicator performs with their words, such as making an assertion, establishing a commitment, expressing feelings, and directing listeners to evoke certain behaviors. Drawing on the stimuli variation perspective and speech acts theory, we examine how the diversity of and changes in “speech acts” in a narrative can influence funding outcomes. Using a sample of 28,000 crowdfunding campaigns and a supervised machine-learning approach, we find that entrepreneurs who adopt a variety of speech acts and frequently change from one speech act to another in a narrative are more likely to achieve funding success. Results also support inverted U-shaped relationships of individual speech acts with funding success. This study contributes to both the entrepreneurial narratives and resource acquisition literatures.

企业家资助活动描述中的语言属性在吸引资源方面发挥着重要作用。除了检查单个语言属性的影响外，本研究还采用组合方法，将叙述视为语言属性的组合或集合。具体来说，我们将叙事假设为“言语行为”的组合，并根据叙事中的变化检查选定言语行为的综合效果。言语行为是交际者用他们的话语执行的动作，例如做出断言、建立承诺、表达感受以及引导听众唤起某些行为。借鉴刺激变异视角和言语行为理论，我们考察了“言语行为”的多样性和变化”在叙述中可以影响资助结果。使用 28,000 个众筹活动样本和监督机器学习方法，我们发现采用多种言语行为并在叙述中经常从一种言语行为转换为另一种言语行为的企业家更有可能获得融资成功。结果还支持个人言语行为与资助成功之间的倒 U 型关系。这项研究有助于创业叙述和资源获取文献。