This document provides an overview of a research project analyzing web-based images of entrepreneurs. It discusses using a Combined Visual Analysis methodology to examine images from Google Image searches and stock image libraries. The analysis involves categorizing images, analyzing composition, semiotics, gaze and gesture. Preliminary conclusions found themes of masculinity reinforced in male images but adopted in female images, with stock images predominating. Challenges discussed include volume of data, platformization, and ethics. Key advice is to explore visual representations, notice stock image use, discuss ethics, and contribute seriously while having fun.

1. © 2021 Katrina Pritchard. All rights reserved.
CASE #3
WEB-BASED IMAGES
@ProfKPritchard
Professor Katrina Pritchard
Digital methodologies
Principles and practices of researching online
13th July 2021

2. © 2021 Katrina Pritchard. All rights reserved.
WEB-BASED IMAGES
• Online visual content: traditional visual media, contemporary forms and
combinations in multimodal presentations
• Embedded in particular sites but also shared, transferred and transformed
• Examine Rose’s (2016) sites of: production, the image itself, and audience
• Why study?
‘media spectacle’
(Tan, 2011)
‘cultural text[s]’
(Milestone & Meyer,
2012)
‘public pedagogy’
(Stead and Elliot, 2019)
‘mediascapes’
(Banet-Weiser, 2018)
‘shifting relationship between word and
image’
(Rämö, 2011)

3. © 2021 Katrina Pritchard. All rights reserved.
PROJECTS
HRM
• Google Image Search
• Stock images
• Developed ‘Combined
Visual Analysis’ (CVA)
methodology
Pritchard, K. (2020). Examining
web images: a combined visual
analysis approach. European
Management Review, 17(1), 297-
310.
Ageing
• Stock Images from online
news media
• Davison’s Portrait Codes
• Used in group photo-
elicitation
• Thematic analysis of
responses
Pritchard, K., & Whiting, R. (2015).
Taking stock: A visual analysis of
gendered ageing. Gender, Work
& Organization, 22(5), 510-528.
Entrepreneurship
• Google Image Search
• Following the images
across online spaces
• Multiple image forms
• Applied CVA + Davison’s
portrait codes, analysis of
gaze & gesture
GWO Conference 2021, with Dr
Helen C Williams & Dr Maggie C
Miller

4. © 2021 Katrina Pritchard. All rights reserved.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROJECT OVERVIEW
Search
Top Ten
Search
Related
Images
Agency
Categorisatio
n and Tags
Image Library Digital Space
Search Engine Digital Space
Texts &
Additiona
l Images
Online
Media
Use
Online Media Digital Spaces
START HERE 1: MAP ACROSS
2: FOLLOW
3: UNPACK ADVICE
FINISH HERE!

5. © 2021 Katrina Pritchard. All rights reserved.
MAPPING ACROSS
Top Images
Search
Related Images
Additional Images
Portrait Analysis
(Davison, 2010)
Physical, Dress,
Interpersonal,
Spatial Codes
Combined Visual Analysis CVA (Pritchard, 2020)
Categorical Compositional Montage (what are these images of)
Thematic Compositional Analysis (how are these images constructed)
Semiotic Analysis (what might these images mean)
Specific Visual features:
Gaze (e.g. Martinez, 2020) and Gesture (e.g. Kendon, 2004)

6. © 2021 Katrina Pritchard. All rights reserved.
SOME PRELIMINARY CONCLUSIONS
• Visual themes are embedded yet also build via repetition and appropriation (e.g.
time and money appropriated as male)
• We noted adoption of masculine presentations in female images; but less ‘femininity’
in the male images where masculinity is reinforced
• Stock images rule; and are often the only image used to illustrate ‘the entrepreneur’
• Healthy, fit and well groomed body problematises and backgrounds alternative
presentations; signals importance work on self
• Using CVA plus additional visual approaches enabled analysis of a sizable data set
with sufficient qualitative attention to detail

7. © 2021 Katrina Pritchard. All rights reserved.
CHALLENGES
• Curating vs collecting
• Volume of data: how to focus and filter
• Circularity, flow, and transience
• Authenticity and fakery
• Platformization and algorithm mysteries
• Ethical and copyright considerations (and cost of purchasing rights)
• Publishing (especially multimodal data)

8. © 2021 Katrina Pritchard. All rights reserved.
KEY TAKE-HOME POINTS!
• Play! Explore the visual representation of your topic of interest
• Start to notice stock images (and how you use them!)
• Have an early discussion with your institutional ethics
• Learn how to use the various online sites you are interested in exploring and keep up to date with changing terms
of use
• Explore visual studies more widely (outside management and organization studies)
• Clarify your own ontological and epistemological standpoint and design your study accordingly
• Be brave and have fun; but make a serious contribution. (See our paper on Barbie as an example!)
Pritchard, K., MacKenzie Davey, K., & Cooper, H.
(2019).
Aesthetic labouring and the female entrepreneur:
‘Entrepreneurship that wouldn’t chip your nails’.
International Small Business Journal, 37(4), 343-364