The artisans' dilemma: Artisan entrepreneurship and the challenge of firm growth

Resolving the Artisan Entrepreneur’s Oppositional Identity With Venturing in a Declining City Context

“…This identification process relies on both the artisan entrepreneur's personal agency (choices made and volition exercised in sustained craft work and commercial efforts) and dynamic sociocultural context that gives meaning to and generates demand for the handicrafts. Solomon and Mathias (2020) explored connections between artisan entrepreneurs' identities and their small firms' growth prospects, drawing in part on recent research in counter-institutional identities (Chreim, Langley, Reay, Comeau-Vallée, & Huq, 2020). Chreim et al explained that counter-institutional organizational forms (such as many artisanal ventures) arise when the members of the emerging organizations view the dominant institution as somehow unacceptable or inappropriate.…”

“…Expressly incorporating context into entrepreneurship studies enables researchers to know important boundary conditions and exogenous moderating effects on variables and relationships previously researched largely without contextual considerations (Welter, 2011;Zahra, 2007). Artisan entrepreneurship has also attracted recent research interest (Pret & Cogan, 2019;Ratten, Costa, & Bogers, 2019;Solomon & Mathias, 2020), but as is typical with emerging research areas, scholars have only scratched the surface of contextual considerations in artisan entrepreneurship. My purpose in this article is to generate conceptual research questions and propositions as I bring together two subjects, one contextual and one pertaining to artisan entrepreneurship: the artisan entrepreneur's oppositional identity and venturing in the context of declining cities.…”

“…In cases of typical entrepreneurs and business startups, scholars would certainly expect entrepreneurial identity, as a kind of occupational identity more generally, to influence venturing motivation and behavior (Leitch & Harrison, 2016;Morris, Neumeyer, Jang, & Kuratko, 2018;Phelan & Kinsella, 2009;Pratt, Rockmann, & Kaufmann, 2006). Artisan entrepreneurs are not usually what we might call typical, "mainstream entrepreneurs" (Hoyte, 2019;Solomon & Mathias, 2020), however, as one might surmise just from the label of "oppositional identity" being applied to artisan entrepreneurs. Also, unlike in European, Asian, and African research activity, artisan entrepreneurs get relatively little attention in the U.S. academy that produces the dominant discourse in entrepreneurship scholarship (Hill, 2021;Leitch & Harrison, 2016;Pret & Cogan, 2019).…”

Exploring founder identity tension, resolution, and venture pursuit

“…New venture founders may find that unfamiliar pressures and logics challenge their sense of self (Solomon & Mathias, 2020;Wry & York, 2017;York et al, 2016). For venture founders from creative backgrounds, identity challenges may stem from wishing to prioritize creative pursuit and self-expression over commercial gain (Biraglia & Kadile, 2017;Mathias et al, 2015;Stinchfield et al, 2013).…”

“…Understanding how venture founders from creative backgrounds experience and work on any tensions is important because identity has been linked to venture performance (Mathias & Williams, 2018;Morris et al, 2018). Founders can use their ventures as vehicles to affirm and defend their identities through different behaviors that can affect growth (Mathias & Williams, 2018;Powell & Baker, 2014;Solomon & Mathias, 2020). Inability to "resolve" potential tensions can also contribute to venture failure and adverse motivation and well-being (Amiot et al, 2007;Demetry, 2017;Shepherd & Haynie, 2009).…”