Darwinians, Communitarians and Missionaries: The Role of Founder Identity in Entrepreneurship

Drawing on social identity theory, we explore the identities, behaviors, and actions of 49 firm founders in the sports-related equipment industry. Our analysis suggests the existence of three pure types of founder identities and shows how these identities systematically shape key decisions in the creation of new firms, thereby “imprinting” the start-ups with the founders’ distinct self-concepts. We synthesize our findings in a typology that sheds light on the heterogeneous meanings that founders associate with new firm creation and that improves understanding as to why fundamental differences in firm creation processes and outcomes exist.

[1]  Charles Taylor,et al.  Philosophy and the human sciences , 1985 .

[2]  F. Reid.  Rediscovering the Social Group: A Self-Categorization Theory , 1987 .

[3]  Charles Taylor.  Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity , 1990 .

[4]  S. Shane.  A General Theory of Entrepreneurship: The Individual-Opportunity Nexus , 2003 .

[5]  Majken Schultz,et al.  Organizational identity : a reader , 2004 .

[6]  M. Hogg,et al.  Social Identity and Self-Categorization Processes in Organizational Contexts , 2000 .

[7]  Sonali K. Shah,et al.  How Communities Support Innovative Activities: An Exploration of Assistance and Sharing Among End-Users , 2003 .

[8]  S. Shane.  A General Theory of Entrepreneurship , 2003 .

[9]  Malin E. Brännback,et al.  Understanding the entrepreneurial mind : opening the black box , 2009 .

[10]  A. Strauss,et al.  The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research aldine de gruyter , 1968 .

[11]  Michael H. Morris,et al.  The entrepreneur's business model: toward a unified perspective , 2005 .

[12]  Thomas Pogge,et al.  Cosmopolitanism and Sovereignty , 1992, Ethics.

[13]  Ha Hoang,et al.  Becoming a Founder: How Founder Role-Identity Affects Entrepreneurial Transitions and Persistence in Founding , 2007 .

[14]  Warren Boeker,et al.  Organizational Origins: Entrepreneurial and Environmental Imprinting of the Time of Founding , 1988 .

[15]  É. Weber.  Verfolgung und Trauma : zu Emmanuel Lévinas' Autrement qu'être ou au-delà de l'essence , 1990 .

[16]  Charles Y. Murnieks,et al.  Collective Passion in Entrepreneurial Teams , 2009 .

[17]  William B. Gartner,et al.  Predicting new venture survival: An analysis of “anatomy of a start-up.” cases from Inc. Magazine , 1999 .

[18]  Jean Hartley,et al.  Case study research , 2004 .

[19]  Joel Podolny,et al.  Love or Money? The Effects of Owner Motivation in the California Wine Industry , 1998 .

[20]  Eric von Hippel,et al.  Satisfying Heterogeneous User Needs Via Innovation Toolkits: The Case of Apache Security Software , 2002 .

[21]  Muhammad Yunus,et al.  Banker to the poor : micro-lending and the battle against world poverty , 1999 .

[22]  N. Denzin,et al.  Handbook of Qualitative Research , 1994 .

[23]  J. Rawls,et al.  A Theory of Justice , 1971, Princeton Readings in Political Thought.

[24]  D. Hambrick,et al.  Upper Echelons: The Organization as a Reflection of Its Top Managers , 1984 .

[25]  Marc Gruber,et al.  Look Before You Leap: Market Opportunity Identification in Emerging Technology Firms , 2008, Manag. Sci..

[26]  A. Scherer,et al.  Toward a Political Conception of Corporate Responsibility - Business and Society Seen from a Habermasian Perspective , 2007 .

[27]  M. Lerner,et al.  Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research , 2003 .

[28]  John M. T. Balmer,et al.  Social Identity, Organizational Identity and Corporate Identity: Towards an Integrated Understanding of Processes, Patternings and Products , 2007 .

[29]  Marcelo L. Pelizzoli.  Autrement qu¿être ou au-delà de l¿essence , 1992 .

[30]  Donald O. Neubaum,et al.  A Typology of Social Entrepreneurs: Motives, search Processes and Ethical Challenges , 2009 .

[31]  Henry Mintzberg.  Mintzberg on management : inside our strange world of organizations , 1991 .

[32]  Anna De Fina,et al.  The ethnographic interview , 2019, The Routledge Handbook of Linguistic Ethnography.

[33]  P. P. McDougall,et al.  The effects of industry growth and strategic breadth on new venture performance and strategy content , 1994 .

[34]  C. Hemingway.  Personal Values as A Catalyst for Corporate Social Entrepreneurship , 2005 .

[35]  Charles Y. Murnieks,et al.  Who Am I? Looking Inside the 'Entrepreneurial Identity' , 2007 .

[36]  W. Kymlicka.  Liberalism, Community, and Culture , 1989 .

[37]  J. Alexander.  The Common Wealth , 1962, Social Service Review.

[38]  J. Kimberly,et al.  Issues in the creation of organizations: initiation, innovation, and institutionalization. , 1979, Academy of Management journal. Academy of Management.

[39]  Peter Burke,et al.  The Link between Identity and Role Performance , 1981 .

[40]  J. R. Moore,et al.  The theory of the growth of the firm twenty-five years after , 1960 .

[41]  M. Brewer,et al.  Who is this "We"? Levels of collective identity and self representations. , 1996 .

[42]  A. Strauss,et al.  The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research aldine de gruyter , 1968 .

[43]  J. Wincent,et al.  THE NATURE AND EXPERIENCE OF ENTREPRENEURIAL PASSION , 2009 .

[44]  Jane E. Dutton.  Identity in Organizations: Building Theory Through Conversations , 1999 .

[45]  D. Shepherd,et al.  Birds of a feather don't always flock together: Identity management in entrepreneurship , 2009 .

[46]  Alison Mackey,et al.  A Social Actor Conception of Organizational Identity and Its Implications for the Study of Organizational Reputation , 2002 .

[47]  Matthew B. Miles,et al.  Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook , 1994 .

[48]  Charles Taylor.  Philosophy and the Human Sciences: Contents , 1985 .

[49]  Jeffrey D. Sachs.  Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet , 2008 .

[50]  Carolyn Y. Woo,et al.  Survival of the Fittest? Entrepreneurial Human Capital and the Persistence of Underperforming Firms , 1997 .

[51]  P. Burke,et al.  Identity theory and social identity theory , 2000 .

[52]  D. Abell,et al.  Defining the Business: The Starting Point of Strategic Planning , 1980 .

[53]  Michael Walzer,et al.  Spheres of Justice , 1983 .

[54]  T. Abel,et al.  Mind, Self, and Society , 1934 .

[55]  D. A. Thomas,et al.  Liberalism and the Limits of Justice , 1983 .

[56]  S. Shane,et al.  The Promise of Entrepreneurship as a Field of Research , 2000 .

[57]  J. Barney,et al.  A Strategy Conversation on the Topic of Organization Identity , 1998 .

[58]  R. Turner.  The Self-Conception in Social Interaction , 1968 .

[59]  D. Hambrick,et al.  Book Review: Human Resources, Personnel, and Organizational Behavior: The Executive Effect: Concepts and Methods for Studying Top Managers , 1990 .

[60]  Christoph Zott,et al.  DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES AND THE EMERGENCE OF INTRAINDUSTRY DIFFERENTIAL FIRM PERFORMANCE: INSIGHTS FROM A SIMULATION STUDY , 2003 .

[61]  L. Gary,et al.  ABELL F. Dereck, Defining The Business. The Starting Point of Strategic Planning . USA, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1980. , 1996 .

[62]  Glen L. Urban,et al.  Lead User Analyses for the Development of New Industrial Products , 1988 .

[63]  Charles R. Beitz,et al.  Political Theory and International Relations. , 1981 .

[64]  Dennis A. Gioia,et al.  From individual to organizational identity. , 1998 .

[65]  N. Hoffart.  Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory , 2000 .

[66]  M. K. D. Vries,et al.  Top Executive Locus of Control and Its Relationship to Strategy-Making, Structure, and Environment , 1982 .

[67]  H. Tajfel,et al.  An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. , 1979 .

[68]  A. Maclntyre.  Is Patriotism a Virtue , 1984 .

[69]  Glenn R. Carroll,et al.  Ecological models of organizations , 1988 .

[70]  Diogenes Laertius,et al.  The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers , 1853 .

[71]  Albert A. Cannella,et al.  Strategic Leadership: Theory and Research on Executives, Top Management Teams, and Boards , 2008 .

[72]  M. Nussbaum.  Kant and Stoic Cosmopolitanism , 1997 .

[73]  James N. Baron,et al.  Building the Iron Cage: Determinants of Managerial Intensity in the Early Years of Organizations , 1999 .

[74]  J. Schumpeter,et al.  Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy , 1943 .

[75]  M. Hogg,et al.  A tale of two theories: A critical comparison of identity theory with social identity theory , 1995 .

[76]  D. Harhoff,et al.  Venture Capitalists’ Evaluations of Start–Up Teams: Trade–Offs, Knock–Out Criteria, and the Impact of VC Experience , 2008 .

[77]  William M. Riggs,et al.  Incentives to innovate and the sources of innovation: the case of scientific instruments☆ , 1994 .

[78]  M. Wright,et al.  Entrepreneurial teams and new business creation , 2009 .

[79]  Peter B. Smith,et al.  Self-Construals Across Cultures , 2008 .

[80]  Sonali K. Shah,et al.  The Accidental Entrepreneur: The Emergent and Collective Process of User Entrepreneurship , 2007 .

[81]  J. Whitney.  Case Study Research , 1999 .