Cover not available

Article published In: Pragmatics and Society
Vol. 16:6 (2025) ► pp.892–915

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

Comparing Chinese and British entrepreneurial pitches in reality TV shows

A corpus-based appraisal analysis

 | Zhejiang University
 | Zhejiang University
 | China Zheshang Bank
 | Chengdu Lianzhou International Technology Co., Ltd.
Published online: 6 February 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.22048.zha
Abstract
This paper aims to explore and compare how entrepreneurs in different cultures mobilize evaluative linguistic resources to perform self-promotion in entrepreneurial pitches. Through corpus-based quantitative and qualitative analyses of 160 pitches from two venture capital reality TV shows, the UK’s Dragons’ Den and its Chinese version He Huo Zhong Guo Ren, this study scrutinizes the functions and features of Attitude and Graduation resources in entrepreneurial pitches and conducts further cross-culture comparisons. It is found that all entrepreneurs frequently use positive Attitude resources and upscaled Graduation resources to align investors with the value position being promoted and generate emotional appeal, so as to achieve their pragmatic intent of self-promotion. As for cross-cultural differences within the different social contexts of business culture, Chinese entrepreneurs use Judgment and Intensification resources more frequently and resort more to authoritative institutions, highlighting entrepreneurial commitment and achievements in the pitch process, while British entrepreneurs place more emphasis on the product, including its innovativeness, markets, and usability. With these findings, this study contributes to the literature on self-promotion discourse and cross-cultural pragmatics by exploring and comparing the evaluative resources and linguistic features of entrepreneurial pitches in different cultures.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Discourse of the entrepreneurial pitch
  • 3.Evaluation, attitude, and graduation in appraisal theory
  • 4.Methodology
    • 4.1Data collection and coding
    • 4.2Data analysis
  • 5.Results and discussion
    • 5.1Attitude resources in entrepreneurial pitches
      • 5.1.1Attitude resources in the corpus
      • 5.1.2Comparing Attitude resources in Chinese and British entrepreneurial pitches
    • 5.2Graduation resources in entrepreneurial pitches
      • 5.2.1Graduation resources in the corpus
      • 5.2.2Comparing Graduation resources in Chinese and British entrepreneurial pitches
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Conflict of Interest
  • References
References (53)
References
Alba-Juez, Laura, and Geoff Thompson. 2014. “The many faces and phases of evaluation.” In Evaluation in Context, ed. by Geoff Thompson, and Laura Alba-Juez, 3–26. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Alvesson, Mats, and Dan Kärreman. 2000. “Taking the linguistic turn in organizational research: Challenges, responses, consequences.” Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 36 (2): 136–158. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Balachandra, Lakshmi, Katrin Fischer, and Candida Brush. 2021. “Do (women’s) words matter? The influence of gendered language in entrepreneurial pitching.” Journal of Business Venturing Insights 151 (June): e00224. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blazkova, Hana. 2011. “Telling tales of professional competence: Narrative in 60-second business networking speeches.” Journal of Business Communication 48 (4): 446–463. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brooks, Alison Wood, Laura Huang, Sarah Wood Kearney, and Fiona E. Murray. 2014. “Investors prefer entrepreneurial ventures pitched by attractive men.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 111 (12): 4427–4431. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cardon, Melissa S., Cheryl Mitteness, and Richard Sudek. 2017. “Motivational cues and angel investing: Interactions among enthusiasm, preparedness, and commitment.” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 41 (6): 1057–1085. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chen, Xiao-Ping, Xin Yao, and Suresh Kotha. 2009. “Entrepreneur passion and preparedness in business plan presentations: A persuasion analysis of venture capitalists’ funding decisions.” Academy of Management Journal 52 (1): 199–214. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clark, Colin. 2008. “The impact of entrepreneurs’ oral ‘pitch’ presentation skills on business angels’ initial screening investment decisions.” Venture Capital 10 (3): 257–279. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clarke, Jean S., Joep P. Cornelissen, and Mark P. Healey. 2019. “Actions speak louder than words: How figurative language and gesturing in entrepreneurial pitches influences investment judgments.” Academy of Management Journal 62 (2): 335–360. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coffin, Caroline, and Kieran O’Halloran. 2005. “Finding the global groove: Theorising and analysing dynamic reader positioning using Appraisal, corpus, and a concordancer.” Critical Discourse Studies 2 (2): 143–163. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Daly, Peter, and Dennis Davy. 2016a. “Structural, linguistic and rhetorical features of the entrepreneurial pitch: Lessons from Dragons’ Den.” Journal of Management Development 35 (1): 120–132. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016b. “Crafting the investor pitch using insights from rhetoric and linguistics.” In The Ins and Outs of Business and Professional Discourse Research, ed. by Glen Michael Alessi, and Geert Jacobs, 182–203. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Díez-Prados, Mercedes. 2019. “Verbal and nonverbal engagement devices in business persuasive discourse: The elevator pitch.” In Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, ed. by Carmen Sancho Guinda, 217–242. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ducasse, Ana Maria. 2020. “Evidence-based persuasion: A cross-cultural analysis of entrepreneurial pitch in English and Spanish.” Journal of International Entrepreneurship 18 (4): 492–510. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fernández-Vázquez, José-Santiago, and Roberto-Carlos Álvarez-Delgado. 2020. “The interaction between rational arguments and emotional appeals in the entrepreneurial pitch.” International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research 26 (3): 503–520. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fuoli, Matteo. 2012. “Assessing social responsibility: A quantitative analysis of Appraisal in BP’s and IKEA’s social reports.” Discourse & Communication 6 (1): 55–81. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
García-Gómez, Antonio. 2018. “Dragons’ Den: Enacting persuasion in reality television.” Discourse, Context & Media 211: 1–9. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor). 2009. Paths to Prosperity: Promoting Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century. London: GEM.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. 2004/1994. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold. (2004 third edition revised by C. M. I. M. Matthiessen).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ho, Victor. 2014. “Managing rapport through evaluation in grounder — A qualitative study.” Journal of Pragmatics 611 (January): 63–77. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2020. “Marketization attempts by universities in Hong Kong: An appraisal analysis of institutional responses to quality audit evaluations.” Lingua 2371 (April): 102811. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hofstede, Geert, Gert Jan Hofstede, and Michael Minkov. 2010. Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. New York: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hood, Sue. 2010. Appraising Research: Evaluation in Academic Writing. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hu, Guangwei, and Guihua Wang. 2014. “Disciplinary and ethnolinguistic influences on citation in research articles.” Journal of English for Academic Purposes 141: 14–28. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hunston, Susan. 2011. Corpus Approaches to Evaluation: Phraseology and Evaluative Language. London & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kirby, D. A., and Y. Fan. 1995. “Chinese cultural values and entrepreneurship: A preliminary consideration.” Journal of Enterprising Culture 3 (3): 245–260. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lurtz, Kathrin, and Karin Kreutzer. 2014. “What does your audience expect from you? How entrepreneurs acquire resources through storytelling.” Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings 2014 (1): 1400–1405. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martin, J. R. 2000. “Beyond exchange: Appraisal systems in English.” In Evaluation in Text: Authorial Stance and the Construction of Discourse, ed. by Susan Hunston, and Geoffrey Thompson, 142–175. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martin, J. R., and P. R. White. 2005. The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mason, Colin, Tiago Botelho, and Justyna Zygmunt. 2017. “Why business angels reject investment opportunities: Is it personal?” International Small Business Journal: Researching Entrepreneurship 35 (5): 519–534. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maxwell, Andrew L., and Moren Lévesque. 2014. “Trustworthiness: A critical ingredient for entrepreneurs seeking investors.” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 38 (5): 1057–1080. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moreau, Craig. 2018. “Discursive diversity in the entrepreneurial pitch: Creating and communicating a marketplace space (CAMS) in the high-stakes reality TV show Shark Tank.” In Proceedings of the 83rd Annual Conference of the Association for Business Communication, October 24–27, ed. by Leigh Ann Whittle, 1–15. Miami, Florida: Association for Business Communication.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morrish, Liz, and Helen Sauntson. 2013. “‘Business-facing motors for economic development’: An Appraisal analysis of visions and values in the marketised UK university.” Critical Discourse Studies 10 (1): 61–80. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Munday, Jeremy. 2018. “A model of appraisal: Spanish interpretations of President Trump’s inaugural address 2017.” Perspectives 26 (2): 180–195. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
OECD. 2023. Education at a Glance 2023: OECD Indicators. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. [URL]
Parhankangas, Annaleena, and Maija Renko. 2017. “Linguistic style and crowdfunding success among social and commercial entrepreneurs.” Journal of Business Venturing 32 (2): 215–236. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pollack, Jeffrey M., Matthew W. Rutherford, and Brian G. Nagy. 2012. “Preparedness and cognitive legitimacy as antecedents to new venture funding in televised business pitches.” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 361: 915–939. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roundy, Philip. 2014. “The stories of social entrepreneurs: Narrative discourse and social venture resource acquisition.” Journal of Research in Marketing and Entrepreneurship 16 (2): 200–218. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sabaj, Omar, Paula Cabezas, Germán Varas, Carlos González-Vergara, and Álvaro Pina-Stranger. 2020. “Empirical literature on the business pitch: Classes, critiques and future trends.” Journal of Technology Management & Innovation 15 (1): 55–63. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shi-xu, Kwaa Kwesi Prah, and María Pardo. 2016. Discourses of the Developing World: Researching Properties, Problems and Potentials of the Developing World. Abingdon: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spinelli, Stephen, and Robert Adams. 2015. New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century. 10th ed. New York: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
StataCorp. 2019. Stata Statistical Software: Release 161. College Station, T.X.: StataCorp LLC.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Teague, Bruce, M. David Gorton, and Yanxin Liu. 2020. “Different pitches for different stages of entrepreneurial development: the practice of pitching to business angels.” Entrepreneurship & Regional Development 32 (3–4): 334–352. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Valeiras-Jurado, Julia, and Noelia Ruiz-Madrid. 2020. “When pointing becomes more than pointing: Multimodal evaluation in product pitches.” Language & Communication 741 (September): 74–86. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Der Sluis, Justin, Mirjam Van Praag, and Wim Vijverberg. 2008. “Education and entrepreneurship selection and performance: A review of the empirical literature.” Journal of Economic Surveys 22 (5): 795–841. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Werven, Ruben, Onno Bouwmeester, and Joep P. Cornelissen. 2015. “The power of arguments: How entrepreneurs convince stakeholders of the legitimate distinctiveness of their ventures.” Journal of Business Venturing 30 (4): 616–631. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Varas, Germán, Omar Sabaj, Clay Spinuzzi, Miguel Fuentes, Valentin Gerard, and Paula Cabezas. 2023. “Value creation in start-up discourse: Linking pitch and venture through logics of justification.” International Journal of Business Communication, (January): 1–29. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Williams, Sean D., Gisela Ammetller, Inma Rodriguez-Ardura, and Xiaoli Li. 2016. “A narrative perspective on international entrepreneurship: Comparing stories from the United States, Spain, and China.” IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 59 (4): 379–397. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Xiao, Hang. 2014. CorpusWordParser. V. 3.0.0.0. Institute of Applied Linguistics, Ministry of Education, China.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Xie, Chaoqun, and Peter Teo. 2020a. “Tuning up the promotional volume: Comparing the About Us texts of top- and second-tier universities in China and America.” Journal of Pragmatics 1591 (April): 60–72. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2020b. “Institutional self-promotion: A comparative study of appraisal resources used by top- and second-tier universities in China and America.” Higher Education 80 (2): 353–371. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Xu, Jiajin, and Yunlong Jia. 2011. BFSU Qualitative Coder (version 1.2). Beijing: Beijing Foreign Studies University. [URL]
Zhang, Jing. 2018. “Developing proximity of possible disciplinary selves in narratives: An alternative approach to explore the representation of individual in context.” Discourse Studies 20 (4), 544–562. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue