Giving up the hats? Entrepreneurs' role transitions and venture growth

The Pivot: How Founders Respond to Feedback through Idea and Identity Work

“…This in turn produces more consistent engagement with objects and activities typically associated with that role (Burke & Reitzes, 1991). For instance, in the context of entrepreneurship, individuals who view the role of inventor as salient to their identities are likely to consistently engage in and derive meaning and positive affect from the cognitive efforts involved in formulating entrepreneurial ideas (Mathias & Williams, 2017). Cardon and her colleagues (2009: 520) argued that such positive affect linked to founders' enactment of identity-salient roles, which they labeled "entrepreneurial passion," might "limit an entrepreneur's creative problem solving" and make them "resistant to exploring alternative options."…”

Knowledge Sharing in Young Startups—First Quantitative Steps

“…Organizational culture has a two-fold function in startups: it guides behaviour and also motivates. Startups frequently rely on informal control of work [10] where things just need to be taken care of [38] implying that the individuals' tasks are not strictly defined. In environments that de-emphasises rigid job division and hierarchy, such as in startups, workers are more motivated to take on hard problems [39].…”

“…Pursuing a motivating vision, which is one of the reasons why individuals choose to work in startups [10], can also help boost employees' willingness to take on more challenging tasks. As members engage in multiple tasks [38] through frequent interaction motivated by a single goal, reciprocal organizational norms are expected to arise [51]. At the same time, the equity the company offers can be a significant reason for joining a startup [5], which becomes worthless if the organization fails.…”

“…Startups consist of frequently interacting individuals working towards a unified goal [3] in a low formalization environment [18] where tasks just need to be taken care of without greater considerations to the division of roles [38]. Particularly, identification with the company goals, informal control of work allowing for autonomy and individual responsibility are important motivators for the members [10].…”

“…Particularly, the core members of the early team create the norms of interaction [32] [40] and organizational culture [36]. The core team sets the example of what is expected in the roles they have [38]. As vision and strategies used have been found to be linked [5], the relationship between vision and organizational culture poses a question over their relationship in the startup context.…”