ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
PROPOSAL: SPECIAL ISSUE
IDENTITY, IDENTITY FORMATION AND IDENTITY WORK IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP: CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENTS AND EMPIRICAL APPLICATIONS
Special Issue Editors: Richard T Harrison (University of Edinburgh) and Claire Leitch (Lancaster University)
Even though the construct of identity has gained common currency in contemporary social science it is only relatively recently that it has come to the attention of scholars working in entrepreneurship: "knowledge of the role of founder identity in entrepreneurial processes and outcomes is in its very early stages" (Fauchart and Gruber, 2011: 954; Navis and Glynn, 2011). In the entrepreneurial domain it is recognised that the actions and behaviours of a founder or founding team on the creation and subsequent development of a firm are profound. This is because entrepreneurial activities are infused with meaning as a result of the expression of an individual's identity. As a number of commentators have suggested, identities are the primary sources of motivation for human behavior. Along with entrepreneurial roles, which "are a set of socially held behavioural expectations attached to the positions external to an individual" (Murnieks and Mosakowski, 2007: 2) identities can potentially serve as powerful elements that drive entrepreneurial actions.
In entrepreneurship as in other domains, identity is a complex construct, which as a result of its multi-disciplinary roots, has a range of conceptual meanings and theoretical roles associated with it. It can be viewed as our representation of the internalization and incorporation of socially-held behavioral expectations. As such, it can have an important impact not only on the way we feel, think and behave (present) but also on what we aim to achieve (future). Further, identity provides us with a frame of reference with which to interpret social situations and potential behaviours and actions in all domains, as it appears to signify who we are in relation to, and how we differ from, others.
Falck et al (2009) suggest that the individual's sense of identity is influenced by considerations of social desirability. As entrepreneurs do not construct their identities alone, identity can be regarded as a fundamental bridging concept between the individual and the social (Ybema et al, 2009; Watson, 2009). Essentially, it creates a medium through which the entrepreneurial self and the social interact, as the norms and prescriptions, which arise from social interaction impact upon individual behavior (Laakkonen, 2012). As firm creation is both an individual or team and an inherently social activity, and organisations are social constructions, there is value for entrepreneurship scholars in using the bridging construct of identity. This can be applied to exploring and explaining entrepreneurs' attempts to understand who they are and are not and what they do and do not, in addition to what they should and should not do at all stages in the entrepreneurial process, from entrepreneurial intention through the creation and development of new ventures to the process of entrepreneurial exit.
Beyond this, there is an opportunity to consider the relationship between identity at the level of the individual entrepreneur, within the entrepreneurial team and at the level of the organisation. If organisational identity is what is central, distinctive and enduring about an organisation (Albert and Whetten, 1985) then it serves as a cognitive frame for understanding reality, as a sense-making discourse about and within it as well as a set of shared assumptions and collective claims about it. Organisational identity is embedded in organisational culture and expresses cultural understandings through symbols and images (Hatch and Schultz, 2002). As Gioia et al (2013) have noted there is a major debate between the view that identity is stable over time (the enduring identity proposition) and that sees it as more changeable (the dynamic identity proposition). For entrepreneurship scholars, and in particular for those concerned with the processes of organisational emergence and development, the interaction between identity formation and change in the entrepreneur and identity formation and change in their organisation becomes an important, but hitherto relatively unexplored, research avenue.
In seeking to build on this research, this special issue can be seen as a response to earlier calls for more attention to be paid to "how individuals construct their social world to entrepreneurial behavior" (Reynolds, 1991: 67), on the basis that "the social formation of the entrepreneurial self is still an underdeveloped topic of research" (Down and Reveley 2004: 236). There is scope to more fully enrich our theoretical understanding of identity and identity formation, at both individual and organizational levels, and its relationship to entrepreneurial processes, practices and activities in two ways.
First, entrepreneurial identity is a dynamic and fluid rather than a (relatively) fixed and unchanging feature, shaped by different life episodes and the patterns of those (Lindgren and Wåhlin, 2001). It is, in this view, a complex, increasingly fluid, multi-level and multi-dimensional construct comprising multiple sub-identities rather than a univocal (and unchanging) self, and as such has a profound effect not only on the way we feel, think and behave but also on what we aim to achieve (Sen, 2006; van Knippenberg et al, 2004). Accordingly, it is vital that its dynamics are better understood, particularly in determining how actors behave in an entrepreneurial context.
Second, attention is shifting from the analysis of identity per se to the process through which entrepreneurial identities are formed and shaped - only by understanding the dynamics of identity formation through identity work (Watson, 2009) is it possible to relate identity to entrepreneurial outcomes. While much of the research to date has focused on understanding identity, it is increasingly being recognised that insufficient attention has been paid to the process of identity formation (Gioia et al, 2013) and how this is related to the processes of organising, that is, "the routine activities which characterize much of organizational life" as well as "the objectives that organizations (at least notionally) pursue" (Coupland and Brown, 2012: 2).
This Special Issue focused on identity, identity formation, identity work in entrepreneurship is intended to consolidate existing embryonic theory development, stimulate new conceptual thinking and provide a framework for path-breaking empirical explorations of the topic. Our expectation is that this Special Issue will publish leading-edge research on entrepreneurship and identity. Papers from various disciplinary perspectives (including both those in management and other social sciences) as well as research conducted from a range of philosophical and methodological perspectives will be welcome. All units of analysis (individual, team and the organisation, and the dynamic interrelationships between them) are appropriate.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
. The process of identity formation in a wide range of entrepreneurial and SME contexts
. The nature and role of identity work in entrepreneurship, the processes by which identities are constructed and negotiated
. Identity formation and identity change in the entrepreneurial venture
. The paradox of entrepreneurial identity reflected in the tension between individual identity (implying dissimilarity/ heterogeneity) and identity as an entrepreneur (implying role-based similarity/ homogeneity)
. Identity and the expression of cultural understanding through images and symbolic capital in the entrepreneurial context
. The impact of identity on the roles individuals adopt in the entrepreneurial process (e.g. entrepreneurial intentions, entrepreneurial orientation, opportunity recognition)
. Identity and affective behaviour in entrepreneurship
. Identity and the creation and/or functioning of entrepreneurial teams
. Identity and organisational context (size, stage of development, industrial sector)
. Identity and competitive advantage
. The relationship and between and impact of founder identity and organisation identity
. Identity and the implications for entrepreneurship education
. Identity and the family business (the effect on family dynamics, conflict, succession planning, differences in identity between the founder and subsequent generation's identity, impact between family identity and non-family members)
. The relationship between founder and professional manager/ surrogate entrepreneur
. Identity and corporate entrepreneurship
. Identity and social entrepreneurship
References
Albert, S., Ashford, B. E and Dutton, J. E. (2000) Organizational identity and identification: Charting new waters and building new bridges, Academy of Management Review 25 (1) pp 13-17.
Albert, S. and Whetten, D. A. (1985) Organizational identity, Research in Organizational Behavior 7, pp 263-295.
Carroll, B. and Levy, L. (2008) Defaulting to management: Leadership defined by what it is not, Organization 15 (1) pp 75-96.
Coupland, C. and Brown, A. D. (2012) Identities in action: Processes and outcomes, Scandinavian Journal of Management 28 pp 1-4.
Down, S. and Reveley, J. (2004) Generational Encounters and social formation of
entrepreneurial identity: 'Young guns' and 'old farts', Organization 11 (2) pp 233- 250
Gioia, D. A., Patverdhan, S. D., Hamilton, A. L. and Corley, K. G. (2013) Organizational identity formation and change, Academy of Management Annals, 7 pp 123-193.
Fauchart, E. and Gruber, M. (2011) Darwinians, Communitarians and Missionaries: The Role of Founder Identity in Entrepreneurship, Academy of Management Journal, 54 (5), pp. 935 - 957.
Falck, O., Heblich, S. and Ludemann, E. (2009) Identity and Entrepreneurship, CESIFO Working Paper No. 2661 (Category 4: Labour Markets - May 2009).
Hatch, M. J. and Schultz, M. (2002) The dynamics of organsational identity, Human Relations, 55 pp 989-1018.
Laakkonen, A. (2012) Construction of the Entrepreneurial Identity in the Family Business Context: A Cross-Cultural Study, Jyväskylä University Printing House, Jyväskylä 2012 (http://dissertations.jyu.fi/studbusi/9789513945503.pdf - downloaded 5 March 2012)
Lindgren, M. and Wåhlin, N. (2001) Identity construction among boundary crossing individuals, Scandinavian Journal of Management, 17 (3) pp 357-377.
Murnieks, C. and Mosakowski, E. (2007) Who am I? Looking inside the 'Entrepreneurial Identity', Social Science Research Network (available at SSDRN: http:/ssrn.com/abstract=1064901).
Navis, C. and Glynn, M.A. (2011) Legitimate distinctiveness and the entrepreneurial identity: Influences on investor judgements of new venture plausibility, Academy of Management Review 36 (3) pp 479-499.
Reynolds, P. (1991) Sociology and entrepreneurship: Concepts and contributions, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 16 (2) pp 47-70.
Sen, A. (2006) Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny, New York: W. W. Norton.
Van Knippenberg, D., Van Knippenberg, B., De Cremer,D. and Hogg, M.A. (2004) Leadership, self and identity: A review and research agenda, The Leadership Quarterly 15 pp 825-856.
Watson, T. J. (2009) Entrepreneurial action identity work and the use of multiple discursive resources: The case of a rapidly changing family business, International Small Business Journal, 27 (3) pp 251-274.
Ybema, S., Keenoy, T., Oswick, C., Beverungen, A., Ellis, N. and Sabelis, I. (2009) Articulating identities, Human Relations, 62 (3) 299-322.
Timeline and anticipated date of publication
Submission of manuscripts 30 September 2014
Desk review completed 30 November 2014
First review decision 31 January 2015
Submission of revised manuscripts 30 April 2015
Second review decisions 30 June 2015
Submission of revised manuscripts 30 September 2015
Publication 2016
Manuscripts should be submitted electronically direct to the Special Issue editors at
R.Harrison@ed.ac.uk and
c.leitch@lancaster.ac.uk
Papers will be double-blind peer reviewed following the normal practice of the journal.
Further details and discussion of potential submission are welcome:
Professor Richard T Harrison, Centre for Strategic Leadership, University of Edinburgh Business School, 29 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh, UK, EH8 9JS: email:
R.Harrison@ed.ac.uk
Professor Claire Leitch, Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster University, Bailrigg, Lancaster, UK LA1 4YW: email
c.leitch@lancaster.ac.uk
Professor Richard T Harrison
Chair of Entrepreneurship and Innovation
University of Edinburgh Business School
29 Buccleuch Place
Edinburgh EH8 9JS
Scotland, UK
T: +44(0)131 651 5549
E:
R.Harrison@ed.ac.uk
Co-Editor, Venture Capital: An International Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance (Routledge)
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The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
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