Exploring founder identity tension, resolution, and venture pursuit

Abstract

Research suggests that venture founders from creative backgrounds can experience identity tension if they view artistic and commercial logics as competing. Whether they experience this tension and how it is resolved can have implications for their behavioral responses, ultimately shaping the development of their ventures. In this article, we adopt an identity work lens in a longitudinal study of venture founders from creative backgrounds. Our findings and subsequent model detail the circumstances that trigger identity tension and how founders from arts background experience and resolve it in different ways. This leads to practices that focus on different conceptions of performance and growth.

Making sense of identity transitioning within the new venture creation process

“…It can be surmised that identity transitioning may manifest differently when there is individual sensemaking compared to collective sensemaking. Nonetheless, in illustrating identity transitioning and sensemaking as both linear and iterative, this study extends existing scholarship on process models of identity formation (Knox and Casulli, 2021).…”

“…Thereby, this research responds to calls for a processual understanding of new venture creation (Davidsson and Gruenhagen, 2021), specifically new theorising about the coevolution of identity and new ventures (Radu-Lefebvre et al. , 2021; Knox and Casulli, 2021). The stages and transitioning mechanisms identified in this study are novel in that it draws on sensemaking as a conceptual bridge through which identity transitioning occurs between the level of the individual entrepreneur and the level of the organisation.…”

“…, 2013), that is “fluid, ephemeral and fragile” (Bauman, 2000, p. 22, 83). Arguably, a state of in-between-ness or transition (Hoang and Gimeno, 2010; Knox and Casulli, 2021) is taking place during the early founding stages of a new venture, requiring a shift in focus from analysing individual and organisational identity per se to understanding the process through which these identities are formed and shaped (Leitch and Harrison, 2016). Despite this shift in understanding, there remains insufficient attention on the process of identity formation in new ventures (Knox and Casulli, 2021).…”

“…Arguably, a state of in-between-ness or transition (Hoang and Gimeno, 2010; Knox and Casulli, 2021) is taking place during the early founding stages of a new venture, requiring a shift in focus from analysing individual and organisational identity per se to understanding the process through which these identities are formed and shaped (Leitch and Harrison, 2016). Despite this shift in understanding, there remains insufficient attention on the process of identity formation in new ventures (Knox and Casulli, 2021). This paper, therefore, seeks to address the following research question: How do aspiring entrepreneurs navigate identity changes between their own individual self-concept and the organisational identity of the new venture?…”

“…, 2021; Mmbaga et al. , 2020), to advance knowledge of how ventures and identity coevolve (Knox and Casulli, 2021). As well as, to consider the identity transitioning process between the level of the individual entrepreneur and the level of the organisation (Leitch and Harrison, 2016; Demetry, 2017).…”