Entrepreneurs regularly confront resource constraints as they attempt to bring their ideas to fruition. To overcome resource constraints, they often try to mobilize resources from external resource providers and use narratives as a critical tool to do so. We theorize that a particular type of narrative – a resourcefulness narrative – will significantly impact an entrepreneur's ability to mobilize support from resource providers. A resourcefulness narrative is a discursive, temporal account of past or ongoing entrepreneurial actions, whereby an entrepreneur is presented as using, assembling, or deploying resources in creative ways in order to overcome an impediment. We argue that a resourcefulness narrative generates positive emotional and cognitive reactions from external resource providers such that they are inclined to support a venture. Furthermore, these effects are contingent on the general level of resource scarcity or munificence in a venture's environment, the level of uncertainty underpinning the venture, the entrepreneur's experience, and the recency of the actions described within the narrative. By acting resourcefully and transforming that action into a narrative, entrepreneurs can resourcefully mobilize support.

企业家在尝试实现自己的想法时，经常会遇到资源限制。为了克服资源限制，他们经常尝试从外部资源提供者那里调动资源，并使用叙述作为实现此目的的重要工具。我们认为，一种特定类型的叙事（一种机智的叙事）将极大地影响企业家调动资源提供商的支持的能力。机智的叙述是对过去或正在进行的企业家行为的话语性，暂时性描述，通过这种方式，企业家被呈现为以创造性的方式使用，组装或部署资源以克服障碍。我们认为，机智的叙述会从外部资源提供者处产生积极的情感和认知反应，从而使他们倾向于支持企业。此外，这些影响取决于合资企业环境中资源稀缺或丰厚的总体水平，支撑合资企业的不确定性水平，企业家的经验以及叙述中所述行动的近期性。通过采取明智的行动，并将该行动转变为叙事，企业家可以明智地动员支持。