“创而不业”为哪般？象征性创业形成机理研究——基于扎根理论的分析

创业活动日益活跃的同时，“创而不业”现象也随之增多，此类创业与传统意义上的创业在行为表现、创业动机等方面有本质的区别，但未引起学术界足够重视。基于此，运用扎根理论选取13个案例，探讨象征性创业类型、形成路径与机理。研究发现：①象征性创业与实质性创业行为表现差异源于创业动机不同，后者追求创业的实质意义，即通过机会识别与开发实现价值创造，而前者则是在象征意义驱动下的行为选择；②根据外部诱因与动机不同，象征性创业具体细分为传染型、策略型和表演型3类，可分别采用社会比较理论、信息不对称理论和印象管理理论加以解释；③3类象征性创业形成机理存在显著差异。其中，传染型创业是由同群创业唤醒负面情绪而引发的模仿行为，其主要目的是修复心理落差，策略型创业是利用信息优势进行政策“套利”的一种手段，表演型创业则是为缓解社会规范压力而开展的印象管理行为。研究结论为深化创业动机研究和理解创业行为差异提供了参考依据。

Why Pretend to Start a Business? The Formation Mechanism of Symbolic Entrepreneurship:An Exploratory Study Based on Grounded Theory

With more people starting their own business, the phenomenon of "pretending to start a business" is also growing. This phenomenon doesn't reflect the basic characteristics of entrepreneurship such as innovation, adventure, and value creation, and wastes a lot of social and policy resources. This kind of entrepreneurship is called symbolic entrepreneurship in this study. Drawing on the research results of symbolic behavior, this study believes that symbolic entrepreneurship is a behavior choice driven by the entrepreneurial behavior′s symbolic significance which is essentially different from substantive entrepreneurship for creating value. Unfortunately, existing studies have focused on substantive entrepreneurial activities, and the relevant results can′t effectively explain the various forms of symbolic entrepreneurship in practice. There is a lack of in-depth discussion on the specific types, formation paths, and mechanisms of symbolic entrepreneurship.#br#To deeply understand the formation mechanism of symbolic entrepreneurship, this paper adopts an exploratory multiple-case study on 13 symbolic start-ups. Through the open coding of the main analysis data, 40 initial categories are summarized. Then, the initial categories are condensed into 11 main categories by axial coding. Finally, three paths of symbolic entrepreneurship are summarized according to the logical relationship of the main categories, and the formation mechanism of symbolic entrepreneurship is defined as the core category in the selective coding stage. According to the different external incentives and motives, symbolic entrepreneurship can be divided into three types: infectious entrepreneurship, strategic entrepreneurship and performance entrepreneurship.#br#Infectious entrepreneurship refers to the imitation behavior to repair the negative emotions generated by the entrepreneurial stimulation of partners. The entrepreneurial actions of partners trigger individual psychological comparison, awaken unhealthy emotions such as envy and jealousy, and cause the loss of psychological resources. To eliminate or alleviate psychological imbalance, individuals imitate partners' entrepreneurial behaviors. That is, the motivation of infectious entrepreneurship stems from the negative emotions aroused by partners' entrepreneurship, rather than the commercial value of entrepreneurial opportunities. Its entrepreneurial purpose is to show self-ability and social status through entrepreneurial behavior, adjust the relative position between itself and the comparison object, and rebuild a new psychological balance. In essence, it is a psychological resource recovery measure taken when psychological resources are lost.#br#Strategic entrepreneurship is an arbitrage behavior that uses the identity of entrepreneurs due to the information asymmetry between entrepreneurs and the government. Because of incomplete information and high supervision cost, the government cannot comprehensively, accurately and timely judge the actual process and expected effect of entrepreneurship, and usually determines the support strength based on the information provided by entrepreneurs. As a result, some individuals have the motivation to make an adverse selection by using information advantage. Driven by the arbitrage motivation, some individuals take entrepreneurship as a strategic means to obtain various policy "dividends" through the organizational form and behavior consistent with the institutional norms.#br#Performance entrepreneurship is an impression management behavior to meet social norms. In some regions or groups, the long-term commercial tradition or typical demonstration effect of entrepreneurship has promoted the formation of a cultural atmosphere highly recognized for entrepreneurship, which forms a generally recognized value orientation and social preference for entrepreneurial activities. Individuals have pressure to keep consistent with group values, traditional customs and public expectations. To obtain social recognition, individuals have the motivation to uphold their self-images and meet the expectations of the society for their role. Therefore, strategic entrepreneurship is a kind of resource conservation behavior to deal with external pressure and avoid the loss of psychological resources.#br#Based on social comparison theory information asymmetry theory, and impression management theory, this study analyzes the differences of three symbolic entrepreneurship in external incentives, entrepreneurial motivation and theoretical basis. It should be noted that the motivation formation of the three types of entrepreneurial behavior is not a single incentive, but a complex process of the joint action of multiple factors such as external environment, social network, and individual psychological characteristics. The main basis of classification is the difference between leading inducement and leading motivation.#br#This study defines the research boundary between symbolic entrepreneurship and substantive entrepreneurship from the perspective of symbolic and substantive significance of entrepreneurial behavior and analyzes the differences between them in entrepreneurial purpose, driving factors, behavioral characteristics and entrepreneurs' attitudes. In addition, it explains "pretending to start a business " from the social construction significance brought by entrepreneurial behavior. The study helps to expand the research scope of entrepreneurial typology and enrich the research on entrepreneurial motivation.#br#