“I Am an Entreprenur!”: A Project of the Aspired Self towards Changed Code of Honor in China

Abstract

While identity has been demonstrated to exert a motivational effect for individuals to pursue a career in entrepreneurship, the current emphasis is on entrepreneurs imprinting the business venture with their preexisting social identity. This paper draws on a dynamic and future-oriented concept of the self to examine what it means to be an entrepreneur in China. Through in-depth interviews with 50 founders of technology startups and 11 subject experts during 9-month fieldwork in Beijing, I identify four identity types distinct from their Western counterparts. Rather than driven to entrepreneurship out of concern for others, these identity types are best viewed as biographic pro-jects of the self. On the one hand, entrepreneurship in China is pragmatically perceived as providing the means to realizing a desired future. On the other hand, rather than imprinting the business venture with meanings, founders also derive symbolic values from the occupational meaning of entrepreneurship in order to curate a desired identity. These identity projects are themselves embedded in the changing national code of honor due to China’s post-1979 reforms. This paper investigates the meaningfulness of work and career calling, contributes to an identity approach to entrepreneurship, and enriches the social embeddedness of work and career.