The evolution of founder identity as an authenticity work process

Research has shown founders' identities have a significant impact on their ventures. Yet, the process through which founder identity evolves and takes shape remains relatively unexplained. This paper explores the evolution of founder identity through a qualitative study of first-time sustainable entrepreneurs, and their stakeholders, over a three years period. Our analysis revealed the importance of personal identity, the aspect of the self that defines a person as a unique individual based largely on values and beliefs. We found that first-time founders sought to align their personal identity with their evolving founder identity over time. Based on these findings we theorize a process model of founder authenticity work, defined as the activities founders engage in to feel and seem authentic while engaged in entrepreneurial action. This study thus details the significance of personal identity as a guidepost for founder identity evolution, complementing extant founder identity studies focused on role and social identities. In addition, our analysis enriches the current conceptualization of authenticity in entrepreneurship research by linking it to validation of personal identity and highlighting its negotiated nature in the evolution of authentic founder identities.     

An exploration of entrepreneurs' identities and business growth

The purpose of this study is to determine whether certain types of identities are more likely than others to be present before and during business growth. We collect data from six entrepreneurs and adopt an interpretivist approach, using Van Gennep's theory of transitions, to explore the challenges faced by entrepreneurs after startup and during business growth. We find that business growth challenges entrepreneurs' identities as they aspire to achieve their personal goals and reach self-fulfillment. These identities consist of entrepreneurial, manager, personal, and social identities, and each has distinct roles within the business. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for entrepreneurs and policy makers. We recommend that entrepreneurs receive a combination of personal and business support, especially during more uncertain, high-pressure, and complex times.     

Social Enterprises and the Timing of Conception: Organizational Identity Tension,Management, and Marketing

Nonprofit organizations that engage in social enterprises can have difficulty reconciling the social service and business identities of their organization. In this exploratory qualitative interview study, we examine how social enterprises affect this organizational identity tension and how executive directors of nonprofits manage these multiple identities. Findings suggest that identity tension varied dependent upon the timing of conception of the social enterprise. Nonprofit leaders used different approaches to identity management and identity marketing for social enterprises: after conception and social enterprises: at conception. Initial guidance is provided about how nonprofits engaged in social enterprises can manage identity tension issues.     

Busy Auditors,Ethical Behavior,and Discretionary Accruals Quality in Malaysia

The required professional and ethical pronouncements of accountants mean that auditors need to be competent and exercise due care and skill in the performance of their audits. In this study, we examine what happens when auditors take on more clients than they should, thus raising doubts about their ability to maintain competence and audit quality. Using 2803 observations of Malaysian companies from 2010 to 2013, we find that auditors with multiple clients are associated with lower earnings quality, proxied by total accruals and discretionary accruals. Our results demonstrate that associating client firms’ reported discretionary accruals with individual auditors, rather than their firms or offices, is important in determining audit quality. Moreover, we demonstrate that the disclosure of auditors’ signatures on their reports is useful for assessing auditor quality at the individual level, thus contributing to the debate on the usefulness of having auditor identities on reports.     

Navigating compromise: How founder authenticity affects venture identification amidst organizational hybridity

Founders of hybrid ventures encounter organizational tensions that can compel compromise in both their organizations' and their own personal values. Such compromises may, in turn, undermine founders' identification with their ventures. In a multi-case study analysis we examine why social entrepreneurs differ in their responses to organizational tensions, both at the firm- and individual-level, and how such differences relate to their venture identification. Specifically, our findings reveal that strategic decisions made in the context of values-based complexity are often accompanied by concerns regarding founder authenticity—that is, judgments about the alignment between founders' actions and the commitments or responsibilities associated with their identities as entrepreneurs. Yet, because founders differ in the basis from which they seek to maintain such alignment, these differences shape both hybridity management and subsequent venture identification. By unpacking such differences, our findings contribute new theory, bridging recent scholarship on founder authenticity with longstanding research on organizational identification and hybrid organizing.     

When gig workers become essential: Leveraging customer moral self-awareness beyond COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic intensified economic reliance on gig workers that perform essential tasks such as health care, personal transport, food and package delivery, and ad-hoc tasking services within the developed and developing world. As a result, workers who provide such services are no longer perceived as low-skilled laborers but as essential workers who fulfill a crucial role in society. These workers’ newly elevated moral and economic status increases consumer demand for corporate social responsibility toward this stakeholder group, specifically for practices that increase worker freedom and rewards. We provide algorithmic tools for online labor platforms to meet this demand, bolstering their social purpose and ethical branding while better protecting themselves against potential reputational crises. To do this, we propose a managerial strategy rooted in moral self-awareness theory that leverages customers’ self-perceived virtuosity to increase gig-worker freedom.     

Entrepreneurial Leadership,Patriarchy, Gender,and Identity in the Arab World: Lebanon in Focus

In this paper, we apply insights from poststructuralist feminist theory to contribute to entrepreneurial leadership. By drawing on 21 individual narratives with Lebanese women entrepreneurs, we explore how they determine their status as entrepreneurial leaders and establish their entrepreneurial identities. Although the factors of gender, sociocultural values, and agency can be counteractive, it is agency that creates space for entrepreneurship for women and provides them a means to navigate structural inequalities. The entrepreneurs in this study engage in compliance, disregard, and defiance strategies to expand the boundaries of what is socially permissible for women and to strengthen their identities. This research contributes to studies on entrepreneurial leadership and aids in the development of theory by demonstrating how Arab women construct entrepreneurial leadership, agency, and identity at the juncture of patriarchy, sociocultural values, and gender ideologies.     

Food insecurity,customer to volunteer transition and self-concept repair: a free store example

ABSTRACT

Food insecurity poses profound threats to self-concept which impacts on physical and mental health. Two Free Stores specialising in food rescue were selected for this research. Drawing on the narratives of 34 volunteers, we examined the working practices of the Free Stores and the personal experiences of the volunteers. The Free Stores adopted the operational principles of a store format, absence of means testing and customer to volunteer transition to modify the social context from whence the threats derive. Involvement with the Free Stores provides the recipients and volunteers with multiple strategies for self-concept repair to restore positive self-views. The operational principles are effective for gaining insights into the creation and transformation of the personal and social identities of the volunteers.     

Game-Based Marketing: Inspire Customer Loyalty Through Rewards,Challenges, and Contests

In this study, we proposed an integrated model with which we suggested that perceptions of peers and interpersonal communication with peers each mediate the influence of skinlighteningadvertisements on college women in a South Asian country – Singapore. The model is built based on the influence-of-presumed-influence model. We found that college women in Singapore tended to infer their peers’ advertising exposure and the corresponding advertising influence on peers based on their own advertising exposure. Their exposure to skin-lightening advertisements also induced their discussions about fair-skinned appearance with peers. Based on their perceptions of advertising influence on peers and interpersonal communication with peers, college women inferred their peers’ favourable attitudes towards fair-skinned appearance. Finally, they aligned their personal attitudes with their female peers’ attitudes and their attitudes predicted their intention to adopt skin-lightening regimes.     

Unpacking humility: Leader humility,leader personality,and why they matter

Humility has attracted increasing attention in discussions of leadership given the positive effects that humble leaders can have on team and firm performance. In spite of what we know about the favorable outcomes of leader humility, we do not know much about how personality influences humble behaviors. How is leader humility related to personality? How can leaders develop humility? In this article, we look at how the personality factors of Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness to Experience, and Extraversion lead to specific humble behaviors: self-awareness, appreciation of others, low self-focus, teachability, and self-transcendent pursuits. We find that the personality mix of Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Openness to Experience form a substantial base for developing leader humility. At the same time, a humble leader can be an introvert or an extrovert, and can demonstrate different degrees of emotional stability. We offer recommendations and a behavioral inventory of leader humility that can be used by leaders and by organizations to recruit for and promote humility, to engage in behavioral modeling and coaching, and to create interventions to develop leader humility.     

Tactical deception in covert selling: A persuasion knowledge perspective

In two studies, we examine consumers' perceptions of covert personal selling in relation to their product evaluation and salespersons' self-disclosure of the selling motive. Study 1 suggests that positive product evaluation can moderate the perceived deceptiveness of an overt selling attempt, but not that of its covert counterpart. Study 2 provides further evidence of consumer resistance against covert selling, even when the salespersons disclose their identities prior to consumers' purchase decisions. This research sheds further light on the compelling negative ramifications of tactical deception in covert marketing communications.     

Green consumers and their identities: how identities change the motivation for green consumption

This research aims to fill the gap in green consumption literature from the perspective of values as types of intentions and identity‐based motivation. In two studies, we examine how the salience of personal and social identities can change the relationship between types of intentions and green consumption. The results demonstrate that when personal identity is salient, self‐transcendence intentions influence green consumption more than self‐enhancement intentions. This is because personal identity (compared with social identity) increases the positive effect of congruent intentions (self‐transcendence) on green consumption. However, when social identity is salient, self‐transcendence and self‐enhancement intentions have a similar impact on green consumption. This is because social identity (compared with personal identity) reduces the negative effect of self‐enhancement intentions on green consumption. Finally, we discuss theoretical and managerial implications for values as types of intentions, identity‐based motivation and green consumption.     

The influence of information about labour abuses on consumer choice of clothes: a grounded theory approach

This paper attempts to fill one of the gaps in the literature about ethical consumption, in particular about ethical purchasing of clothes. By using grounded theory and sampling University students, this study proposes a model to explain the influence of information about labour abuses on consumer behaviour when buying clothes. The model is built upon a core category labelled ambivalence. This category explains the differences in cognition, motivation and behaviour among participants. The ambivalence arises due to the interdependent relationship of three factors: should (ethical obligation), want (conflicting identities), and can (personal action to change).     

A processual theory of green identity formation: the case of young environmentalists in Australia

Using image‐elicited, depth interviews, this qualitative study explores green consumption practices among 20 young environmentalists, aged between 18 and 25 years, in an Australian city with a view to examine how various identity formations reside in their narratives. The study's findings strongly support the applicability of Cherrier and Murray's four‐stage processual theory of identity (sensitization, separation, socialization, striving) to understand young environmentalist's formation of a green identity. The study also develops an emergent processual theory of green identity formation, which encompasses four main stages of control, create, compromise and customize. Each stage corresponds to how the young environmentalists position and negotiate their formative green identities, including first enacting control about their identity; creating their new identity in relation to existing green identity projects; compromising their new identity as it is practiced and socialized in their lives; and finally, customizing their identity as they frame, situate and align personal, social and cultural influences about consumption and their identity. The findings inform green policy makers and institutions working towards building a green consumer society involving young consumers.     

Information,Incentives, and Proenvironmental Consumer Behavior

The article discusses the factors influencing proenvironmental consumer behaviors and the policy implications of knowledge about these influences. It presents a conceptual framework that emphasizes the determining roles of both personal and contextual factors and especially of their interactions. The practical usefulness of the framework is illustrated by evidence of the interactive effects of information and material incentives – typical interventions in the personal and contextual domains, respectively. The author concludes that incentives and information have different functions, so that efforts focused on only one are sometimes misplaced; however, properly deployed, they can have synergistic effects on behavior. Some policy conclusions are drawn for consumer and environmental policy.     

Rationalizing Ideologies, Social Identities and Corruption Among Civil Servants in Indonesia During the Suharto Era

This study investigated how the social identities assumed by individuals as part of their professional roles influence the nature and use of a range of rationalizations for their corruption or the corrupt acts of others. Thirty senior Indonesian public servants were interviewed about the causes and factors that perpetuated corruption during the Suharto era, and how they rationalized corrupt behavior within the role of being a civil servant. Findings revealed that corruption was routine and embedded in the daily activities and administrative structures of Indonesian public servants. Rationalizing ideologies that supported corruption included a denial of responsibility, social weighting and an appeal to higher loyalties. Central to these rationalizations were explanations around the low levels of civil service salaries, poor accountability, and corrupt leadership at senior levels of the government. However, the expression of these rationalizations varied across three social or role identities of the Indonesian civil servant: the professional civil servant, the collegial civil servant, and the corrupt civil servant. The implications of these findings for interventions in organizations in developing countries are discussed.     

Pet loves, rants, and raves: Commentary on Downey and Ellis's article

Downey and Ellis's article about the acquisition of cats is timely. Across Western nations, the popularity of pet ownership is steadily increasing. Industry figures show that this trend strongly reflects high as well as low involvement household-purchase decisions. Reasons for the upswing are unclear. A cogent explanation is that increases in divorce, separation, and single households mean that more consumers seek companionship and/or a sense of family via pet ownership. Other explanations warrant additional investigation. Do absent parents substitute pets as socialising agents for their children? Are modern parents susceptible to the Paris-Hilton effect? What is the role of pets in the psychological and physical health of the elderly? Do consumers use pets to enact multiple identities and resolve identify conflicts? An important question looms large. Why do business researchers neglect the examination of animals as consumer products and co-producers of leisure activities? Perhaps they(we?) are reluctant to acknowledge “another inconvenient truth”; the role of (wo)man's will to power in the devastating, possibly unethical, treatment of animals. Elizabeth Costello, the fictional animal rights activist in J.M. Coetzee's [Coetzee J.M. Elizabeth Costello. Great Britain: Secker and Warburg; 2003.] book, presents us with a provocative question. By raising billions of animals a year, often in squalid conditions before brutally slaughtering them for their meat and/or skin, are we complicit to a crime of stupefying proportions?     

Self-construals,symbolic and hedonic preferences,and actual purchase behavior

The study explores the influence of the independent and interdependent self-construals on actual purchase behavior and the mediating role of consumer preferences for symbolic and hedonic meanings. Data were collected through a survey of about 1000 respondents. Results indicate that independent consumers draw on the self/hedonic- and status-symbolic resources of clothing in the construction and expression of their identities. Regarding the interdependent consumers, they show no interest in clothing affiliation and status symbolism. The degree of preference for status-symbolic meaning mediates all effects of the independent and interdependent self-construals on actual purchase behavior; self-expressive/hedonic preferences mediate two of the three effects of the independent self on actual purchase behavior when accounting for suppression effects, whereas the expected mediation of preference for affiliation meaning is not supported.     

Successful female expatriates as agents: Positioning oneself through gender,hierarchy, and culture

While most studies on female expatriates take a structural approach, this study considers female expatriates as active agents, capable of producing effective professional identities when interacting with men. We propose that female expatriates are agents who selectively interpret interactions with male actors and actively position themselves within these interactions. Within these two processes of interpreting and positioning, we examine how they draw from gender, hierarchy and culture as three power-laden identity discourses that not only constrain but also enable their actions. Through the analysis of in-depth interviews with successful female expatriates, we show how these women counter their (perceived) lower status along one identity discourse by strategically positioning themselves through a more empowering identity.     

Comparing Corporate Managers' Personal Values Over Three Decades, 1967--1995

What is the nature of the decision-related personal values of corporate management? Managers' attitudes and behaviors are built upon their personal value systems (PVS). Knowledge about the structure of management's PVS assists in understanding the attributes of corporate decision making. Utilizing a survey instrument developed and used by England (1967, 1975), this article updates this research into corporate managers' personal value systems. England's PVS consists of sixty-six pre-tested values clustered into five groups. As one could expect with personal values, statistical tests reveal that even with dramatic changes in the business environment the overall personal values structure has not changed over the intervening three decades. The results also reveal that corporate managers retain their pragmatic value orientation as discussed by England.