Abstract
ABSTRACT Research suggests that venture founders from creative backgrounds can experience identity tension if they view artistic and commercial logics as competing. Whether they experience this tension and how it is resolved can have implications for their behavioral responses, ultimately shaping the development of their ventures. In this article, we adopt an identity work lens in a longitudinal study of venture founders from creative backgrounds. Our findings and subsequent model detail the circumstances that trigger identity tension and how founders from arts background experience and resolve it in different ways. This leads to practices that focus on different conceptions of performance and growth.
Highlights
New venture founders may find that unfamiliar pressures and logics challenge their sense of self (Solomon & Mathias, 2020; Wry & York, 2017; York et al, 2016)
Research suggests that venture founders from creative back grounds can experience identity tension if they view artistic and commercial logics as competing
In this study we aim to address how venture founders from arts backgrounds experience and resolve identity tension and how this work is linked to different priorities for venture performance
Summary
New venture founders may find that unfamiliar pressures and logics challenge their sense of self (Solomon & Mathias, 2020; Wry & York, 2017; York et al, 2016). Some individuals from creative backgrounds even believe that entrepreneurial action can be antithetical to artistic action (Coulson, 2012; Gangi, 2015) This body of work suggests that competing logics may be inherent within creative pursuits and commercial imperatives (Coulson, 2012; Eikhof & Haunschild, 2007; Gotsi et al, 2010). This can result in founders experiencing tension due to external feedback not aligning with their self-perceptions (Conger et al, 2018; O’Neil et al, 2020). Founders can use their ventures as vehicles to affirm and defend their iden tities through different behaviors that can affect growth
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