The effect of maker entrepreneur's agency and communion language on stakeholder engagement

A growing area of interest in the entrepreneurship literature examines the communal spaces where maker entrepreneurs interact, create, and sell their novel artifacts. However, we know surprisingly little about how these individuals communicate their entrepreneurial endeavors to their local community, and how this communication affects key stakeholder engagement. Using a unique social media dataset of 48 maker entrepreneurs who participated in a community-based event, we find support for our theorizing. Our results reveal a negative relationship between agentic language and online stakeholder engagement, whereas communal language is positively related to stakeholder engagement. Interestingly, the negative relationship between agentic language and online stakeholder engagement is stronger for local maker entrepreneurs. Supplemental interviews with maker entrepreneurs provide additional insights into their feedback-seeking behaviors and networking within the maker community. • We examine how agency and communion language affects stakeholder engagement. • Agency language reduces stakeholder engagement while communion language boosts engagement. • The negative effect of agency language is stronger for local maker entrepreneurs.