Engaging Opportunities in the Context of COVID-19 Equivocality: The Role
of Frame Structure
Abstract
How does information interpretation influence entrepreneurial action
when the market is uncertain? This article reveals the role of frame
structure through a topic modeling analysis of over 2900 financial news
items about 444 newly public firms in 2021, when COVID-19 brought the
greatest market uncertainty and, meanwhile, record breaking IPOs. It is
the structure of the alignment of primary frames, the foundations of
interpretative frames upon which information about financial market and
individual firms rest; secondary frames, the positioning of other frames
toward primary frames through congruence or incongruence; and
socio-cognitive content clusters, the grouping of frequent terms that
supply information. The analysis showed that information about
successful IPOs has a flatter structure with a higher ratio of alignment
than that of unsuccessful ones, regardless of firm age. It suggests a
negative association between frame structure and entrepreneurial action
outcome when the market is uncertain.