Diego Barrio Herrezuelo, Louvain Research Institute in Management and Organizations
James Thewissen, Louvain Research Institute in Management and Organizations
Jennifer Thewissen, University of Antwerp
Summary
Based on a sample of 1,202 Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) white papers issued between 2015 and 2021, this paper examines how linguistic temporality (i.e., whether a text is more past or future-oriented) shapes credibility and fundraising success. Using a fine-tuned BERT classifier, we provide a context-aware and sentence-level measure of linguistic temporality and construct a document-level index capturing a balance of future versus past content. Our results show a negative relationship between future-oriented language and the amount of funds raised, whereas past-oriented language is associated with higher fundraising success. This relationship is content and context dependent as future-oriented language credibility effect is stronger when operating in technology-rich white papers and in socio-institutional environments that strengthen the credibility and verifiability of forward-looking communication. We also document a reverse effect where future orientation predicts higher post-ICO token returns, consistent with investor learning and signal revelation once claims become verifiable. Overall, using a novel context-aware approach, this paper extends credible signaling theory and the understanding of linguistic temporality by clarifying when forward-looking discourse is 'cheap' versus credible.
Keywords: Entrepreneurial finance; Financial reporting; Initial Coin Offerings; Linguistic temporality; Signaling theory
Nicolas Gerardy, UCLouvain Louvain Research Institute in Management and Organizations
Alain Decrop, UNamur Namur Digital Institute - Research Center For Marketing and Service Management
Nicolas Kervyn, UCLouvain Louvain Research Institute in Management and Organizations
Summary
Despite growing interest in destination anthropomorphism, the interpretive mechanisms through which tourists humanize and gender destinations remain theoretically unaccounted for. Drawing on 14 semi-structured interviews analyzed through an abductive approach, this study develops the first systematic semiotic framework for destination humanization. Grounded in Peirce's triadic distinction between indexical, iconic, and symbolic sign relations, findings reveal three distinct pathways through which tourists attribute human and gendered characteristics to places. Indexical processes operate through direct or observed contact with residents, whose characteristics transfer onto the destination. Iconic processes mobilize cultural resemblances, historical narratives, representative figures, artistic forms, stereotypes, and shared values, to animate destinations with human qualities. Symbolic processes draw on social gender norms and grammatical gender conventions, and operate exclusively in gender attribution. Together, these pathways constitute a semiotic architecture of destination personification with theoretical implications for destination anthropomorphism research and practical relevance for destination marketing organizations.
Keywords: Branding; destination branding; grammatical gender; brand gender