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Identity, identity formation and identity work in entrepreneurship: conceptual developments and empirical applications

Claire M. Leitch and Richard T. Harrison

Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 2016, vol. 28, issue 3-4, 177-190

Abstract: This paper reviews the current status of research into entrepreneurial identity. Identities – individual and organizational – can potentially serve as powerful elements that both drive and are shaped by entrepreneurial actions. Identity is, of course, a complex construct with multidisciplinary roots and consequentially a range of conceptual meanings and theoretical roles associated with it. Building on a framework for identifying schools of thought in the social sciences, we highlight the need for more critical studies of entrepreneurial identity that recognize, first, that entrepreneurial identity is a dynamic and fluid rather than (relatively) fixed and unchanging feature, and second, that research attention should shift from the analysis of identity per se (the identity-as-entity position) to the identity work processes through which entrepreneurial identities are shaped and formed (the identity-as-process position). Following a summary of the key contributions of the five papers included in this Special Issue, we conclude with some pointers for future research.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1080/08985626.2016.1155740

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