A new perspective on the entrepreneur's identity

Abstract

This research concentrates on the relation between the self-reported entrepreneur’s identity and the entrepreneur’s account of their actions. The contribution is to specify the content of the elements that constitute the entrepreneur’s identity process model. In particular, this relates to the adaptation of the identity standard and the output to the environment. The central research questions of the study are: “What do entrepreneurs think about themselves?” and “How does it influence their entrepreneurial actions?” I posit that entrepreneurial actions stem from the way entrepreneurs control the feedback about themselves in a situation to confirm the meanings in their identity standard. The entrepreneur’s identity is examined in the context of digital technology entrepreneurs. The research subjects are 27 entrepreneurs from a high-tech incubator programme based in a UK university. One-to-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with each individual.