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  • ERD SI Intro FINAL 12 Feb 2016 v1

    Rights statement: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Entrepreneurship and Regional Development on 20/01/2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/08985626.2016.1155740

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    Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineEditorialpeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>2016
<mark>Journal</mark>Entrepreneurship and Regional Development
Number of pages14
Pages (from-to)177-190
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date20/04/16
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

This paper reviews the current status of research into entrepreneurial identity. Identities – individual and organisational – 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 recognise, 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.

Bibliographic note

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Entrepreneurship and Regional Development on 20/01/2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/08985626.2016.1155740