Abstract
This chapter draws attention to a fundamental question that minority entrepreneurs ask themselves: “Who am I?” A key insight is that their self-identities are multifaceted, as reflected in distinct collective, relational and personal orientations. They enact their collective identity orientation when they strongly identify with their own community. Meanwhile, they enact their relational and personal identity orientations when they primarily see themselves as relationship partners and unique individuals, respectively. A strategic identity orientation reflects their tendency to enact a match between their identity orientation and external environment that advances their business interests. Such an identity orientation can help them mobilize external resources, and keep their need for a sense of belonging and distinctiveness in balance.
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Notes
- 1.
Viktor Gecas, “The Self-Concept,” Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 8, no. 1 (1982), pp. 1–33; Sheldon Stryker and Peter J. Burke, “The Past, Present, and Future of an Identity Theory,” Social Psychology Quarterly, vol. 63, no. 4 (2000), pp. 284–297.
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Hogg et al. (1995); Spears (2001); Stets and Burke (2000); Thoits and Virshup (1997).
- 4.
Stets and Burke (2000).
- 5.
Stets and Burke (2000); Thoits and Virshup (1997).
- 6.
For a more comprehensive treatment of the multi-faceted nature of identity, see the following studies: Marilynn B. Brewer and Wendi Gardner, “Who Is This ‘We’? Levels of Collective Identity and Self Representations,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 71, no. 1 (1996), pp. 83–93; Shelley Brickson, “The Impact of Identity Orientation on Individual and Organizational Outcomes in Demographically Diverse Settings,” Academy of Management Review, vol. 25, no. 1 (2000), pp. 82–101.
- 7.
Ibid.
- 8.
Ibid.
- 9.
Fiske et al. (2000).
- 10.
Shih et al. (1999); Steele (2010); Valerie Purdie-Vaughns, Claude M. Steele, Paul G. Davies, Ruth Ditlmann and Jennifer Randall Crosby, “Social Identity Contingencies: How Diversity Cues Signal Threat or Safety for African Americans in Mainstream Institutions,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 94, no. 4 (2008), pp. 615–630.
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Ninette Kelley and Michael J. Trebilcock, The Making of the Mosaic: A History of Canadian Immigration Policy, Second Edition (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010); Statistics Canada, “150 Years of Immigration in Canada,” Government of Canada, June 29, 2016. Available Online: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-630-x/11-630-x2016006-eng.htm (Accessed June 20, 2018).
- 12.
Howard E. Aldrich and Roger Waldinger, “Ethnicity and Entrepreneurship,” Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 16 (1990), pp. 111–135; Arturs Kalnins and Wilbur Chung, “Social Capital, Geography, and Survival: Gujarati Immigrant Entrepreneurs in the U.S. Lodging Industry,” Management Science, vol. 52, no. 2 (2006), pp. 233–247; Jennifer Lee, “Retail Niche Domination Among African American, Jewish, and Korean Entrepreneurs: Competition, Coethnic Advantage and Disadvantage,” American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 42, no. 9 (1999), pp. 1398–1416; Ivan Light and Stavros Karageorgis “The Ethnic Economy,” in Neil Smelser and Richard Swedberg, eds., The Handbook of Economic Sociology (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994), pp. 647–669; Alejandro Portes and Robert L. Bach, Latin Journey: Cuban and Mexican Immigrants in the United States (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1985); Alejandro Portes, Robert D. Manning, “The Immigrant Enclave: Theory and Empirical Examples,” in Susan Olzak and Joane Nagel, eds., Comparative Ethnic Relations (Orlando, FL: Academic Press, 1986), pp. 47–68; Min Zhou, “Revisiting Ethnic Entrepreneurship: Convergencies, Controversies, and Conceptual Advancements,” International Migration Review, vol. 38, no. 3 (2004), pp. 1040–1074.
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Hermann Achidi Ndofor and Richard L. Priem, “Immigrant Entrepreneurs, the Ethnic Enclave Strategy, and Venture Performance,” Journal of Management, vol. 37, no. 3 (2011), pp. 790–818.
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Rajeswararao (Raj) S. Chaganti, Allison D. Watts, Radha Chaganti and Monica Zimmerman-Treichel, “Ethnic-Immigrants in Founding Teams: Effects on Prospector Strategy and Performance in New Internet Ventures,” Journal of Business Venturing, vol. 23, no. 1 (2008), pp. 113–139; Ndofor and Priem (2011).
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Dean A. Shepherd and Holger Patzelt, Entrepreneurial Cognition: Exploring the Mindset of Entrepreneurs (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).
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Naomi Ellemers, Russell Spears and Bertjan Doosje, “Self and Social Identity,” Annual Review of Psychology, vol. 53 (2002), pp. 161–186.
- 17.
The lack of adequate psychosocial benefits may hurt marginalized and minority entrepreneurs by amplifying the personal problems that entrepreneurs generally face. For a deeper understanding of this issue, see the following studies: E. Holly Buttner, “Entrepreneurial Stress: Is It Hazardous to Your Health?” Journal of Managerial Issues, vol. 4, no. 2 (1992), pp. 223–240; Muhammad Jamal, “Job Stress, Type-A Behavior, and Well-Being: A Cross-Cultural Examination,” International Journal of Stress Management, vol. 6, no. 1 (1999), pp. 57–67; Hatun Ufuk and Özlen Özgen, “Interaction between the Business and Family Lives of Women Entrepreneurs in Turkey,” Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 31, no. 2 (2001), pp. 95–106.
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Blake E. Ashforth, Glen E. Kreiner and Mel Fugate, “All in a Day’s Work: Boundaries and Micro Role Transitions,” Academy of Management Review, vol. 25, no. 3 (2000), pp. 472–491.
- 19.
Shepherd and Patzelt (2018) suggest that the overall well-being of entrepreneurs could depend on how well they keep the need for distinctiveness and a sense of belonging in balance. See the following source for a related account: Dean A. Shepherd and J. Michael Haynie, “Birds of a Feather Don’t Always Flock Together: Identity Management in Entrepreneurship,” Journal of Business Venturing, vol. 24, no. 4 (2009), pp. 316–337.
- 20.
AFP, “Key Quotes from Obama’s State of the Union Address,” Daily Nation (January 21, 2015).
- 21.
R.L.G., “Code-Switching: How Black to Be?” The Economist (April 10, 2013).
- 22.
More generally, I articulate a view of a flexible identity that builds on, and extends the idea of code switching. The latter is primarily focused on how people navigate their own cultures and mainstream ones by switching between languages, dialects and/or accents—for example, see: Anna De Fina, “Code-Switching and the Construction of Ethnic Identity in a Community of Practice,” Language in Society, vol. 36, no. 3 (2007), pp. 371–392; Judith N. Martin and Thomas K. Nakayama, International Communication in Contexts, Fifth Edition (New York: The McGraw-Hills Companies Inc., 2010); Zadie Smith, “Speaking in Tongues,” The New York Review of Books (February 28, 2009); Vershawn Ashanti Young, Rusty Barrett, Y’Shanda Young-Rivera and Kim Brian Lovejoy, Other People’s English: Code-Meshing, Code-Switching, and African-American Literacy (New York: Teachers College Press, 2014). As can be seen from my conceptualization of a flexible identity, it goes well beyond the adoption of a linguistic strategy for navigating different cultures.
- 23.
Ashforth et al. (2000).
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Morgan, H.M. (2020). Strategic Identity Orientation. In: Underdog Entrepreneurs. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20408-2_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20408-2_7
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