Abstract: Entrepreneurial identity drives the entrepreneurial process, from new venture creation to harvest. Research has found that entrepreneurial identity serves either as a mirror or as a vehicle for the realization of a founder’s identity. Could it be both? If so, how might this happen and with what implications? I address these questions through a 4.5-year field study that traces the development of a family business (MediaCo) longitudinally, through a combination of diaries, interviews and observations. My work so far suggests that the development of a new venture is, at its core, the creation of an identity workspace for its members – that is, of an environment that enables individuals to be or become who they want to be. Specifically, as MediaCo’s co-founders become attuned with “who they were” and “who they wanted to become” by experimenting with their work, they make choices to develop their business in such a way that allowed them to meet their identity aspirations. The work environment they created through their venture afforded them both (creative) freedom and protection, or together, holding. Early in their entrepreneurial pursuits, the need for protection dominated, which helps explain why they stayed physically close, including living and working from the same space. Over time, as the venture became more viable, their individual need for freedom prevailed, pushing them to re-organize their work in such a way that allowed them to be physically apart, among other aspects. The implicit negotiation of space is therefore an important aspect of how co-founders’ dual need for protection and freedom manifest, one that also helped them (re)define the venture over time. Through this work, I look to offer a granular, “from within,” explanation for the development of a new venture that highlights that an identity workspace itself can be an ongoing accomplishment.

 

 

About Eliana Crosina

Eliana Crosina is an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship at Babson College. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Master in Business Administration from Babson College, as well as a Master of Science and a Ph.D. in Organization Studies from Boston College. Prior to academia, she worked in the for-profit sector as an investment banker, as well as in the not-for profit sector, managing international development projects. Crosina's research interests lie at the intersection of identity, entrepreneurial behavior, and cognition. She tackles these issues through largely qualitative methods in two main research streams: (1) examining novel processes of identity; and (2) exploring organizing dynamics in nascent entrepreneurial contexts. Her recent research includes a study of former Lehman Brothers' bankers career experiences after the demise of Lehman Brothers; an ethnography of first time founders in the process of launching their ventures from the same coworking facility; and a longitudinal field study examining the development trajectories of nascent entrepreneurial firms. Her work has appeared in outlets including the Academy of Management Journal, the Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, and Harvard Business Review. In 2016 her dissertation research was awarded a fellowship from the Kauffman Foundation.