Abstract
This paper examines how charismatic leaders alter their framing strategy in different contexts, in particular the attribution of ethos, to make a claim of credibility based on their authority. In particular, we draw on the literature on charismatic leadership and framing to analyze the rhetoric of Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, under different levels of ethos, from low to medium to high. Adopting a topic modeling approach, we found that, at high levels of ethos, Ma’s framing strategy is visionary or oriented toward the future. In comparison, at medium levels of ethos, his framing strategy tends to focus on addressing the current problem, and with low ethos, he become more conservative, conforming, and rule-following. In essence, we argue that Ma’s framing strategy for entrepreneurship and innovation under low, medium, and high levels of ethos is actively articulated through references to the past, present, and future, respectively.