A Foot in Both Camps: The Impact of Professional Identity on Entrepreneurial Activity

Abstract

In this paper we suggest that identity salience contributes to identity enactment, which contributes toward the innovative and creative nature of entrepreneurial activity. While in the general population, alternative occupational role identities among entrepreneurs (e.g., welder, painter, window washer, mobile app developer) may be cognitively recognized, the role identities of professional service providers are particularly significant because of the degree of socialization they receive due to institutional prescriptions (Benveniste, 1987; Van Maanen & Schein, 1979). Further, these professional service providers often start their own professional practices in order to practice their profession with autonomy, and the prevalence of their self-employment in sole practitioner or partnership arrangements is much greater than for the average population. This paper contributes to entrepreneurship theory by suggesting that there are groups of entrepreneurs engaged in entrepreneurial activity for which theories s...