Entrepreneurial Identity

Abstract

Identity refers to the meanings that individuals attach to themselves (Gecas 1982) and is often understood as the answer to the question " Who am I? " (Stryker and Burke 2000). Answering this question allows people to fulfill a basic need to be distinct from others, which is impor-tant for psychological (Fromkin and Snyder 1980) and physical (Markus and Kitayama 1991) health. Nevertheless, although the notion that entrepreneurs are different and distinct is a key topic in entrepreneur-ship studies (e.g., Baker and Nelson 2005; Yli-Renko et al. 2001) and founding and growing a venture may fulfill the psychological need to be unique (Teal and Carroll 1999) and therefore to develop a unique self-identity, doing so may thwart the need to feel belonging (Ashforth and Mael 1989; Tajfel 2010). An unmet need for belonging can lead to feel-ing isolated (Brewer 1991); this feeling can negatively influence the individual's physical and psychological well-being (Leonardelli and Brewer 2001). In this chapter, we develop a framework for entrepre-neurs' dealing with multiple micro-identities (Ashforth et al. 2000; Pratt and Forman 2000) and specify entrepreneurs' strategies to achieve an " ideal " balance between belongingness and distinctiveness (Shepherd and Haynie 2009a). We also explore how individuals can lose their work identities and the role of entrepreneurship in identity recovery and reconstruction. 138 Distinctiveness As just mentioned, individuals have a psychological need to feel unique and different from others (Brewer and Pickett 1999; Hornsey and Jetten 2004; Cantor et al. 2002). This feeling of uniqueness is the basis for devel-oping a sense of distinction from others that plays a key role in the devel-opment and sustenance of identity (Brewer 1991; Fromkin and Snyder 1980).