Liminality and hybridity of academic entrepreneurship

Abstract

This article explores identities in-between and the experience of liminal and hybrid identities in academic work. The longitudinal qualitative case study illustrates how liminal identities crossing organisational boundaries can create a space for employee agency, in contrast to those within the organisation that are influenced by the employer. Using the concept of third space of hybridity, this article illustrates how employee agency can be exercised when identities that cross organisational boundaries are constructed as meaningful. The study is based on repeated narrative interviews with one university scientist over two years, and the experiences of in-between identities were analysed with narrative analysis. The article offers two contributions. First, it suggests that in-between identities are about liminality and hybridity at the same time. Second, it illustrates how the third space of hybridity provides a new ground for the study of changing academic work.