Forging a collective entrepreneurial identity within existing organizations through corporate venturing
International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research
ISSN: 1355-2554
Article publication date: 17 June 2021
Issue publication date: 2 August 2021
Abstract
Purpose
This study unpacks how organizational members construct a collective entrepreneurial identity within an organization and attempt to instill entrepreneurial features in the organization's existing identity.
Design/methodology/approach
The study draws on the cases of two venturing units, perceived as entrepreneurial groups within their respective parent companies. Semi-structured interviews and secondary data were collected and analyzed inductively and abductively.
Findings
The data revealed that organizational members co-constructed a “corporate entrepreneur” role identity to form a collective shared belief and communities of practice around what it meant to act as an entrepreneurial group within their local corporate context and how it differentiated them from others. Members also clustered around the emergent collective entrepreneurial identity through sensegiving efforts to instill entrepreneurial features in the organization's identity, despite the tensions this caused.
Originality/value
Previous studies in corporate entrepreneurship have theorized on the top-down dynamics instilling entrepreneurial features in an organization's identity, but have neglected the role of bottom-up dynamics. This study reveals two bottom-up dynamics that involve organizational members' agentic role in co-constructing and clustering around a collective entrepreneurial identity. This study contributes to the middle-management literature, uncovering champions' identity work in constructing a “corporate entrepreneur” role identity, with implications for followers' engagement in constructing a collective entrepreneurial identity. This study also contributes to the organizational identity literature, showing how tensions around the entrepreneurial group's distinctiveness may hinder the process of instilling entrepreneurial features in an organization's identity.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank editors Richard Tunstall and Paul Jones for their substantial support during the review process. The authors are thankful to the two anonymous reviewers, whose comments and thoughtful guidance helped push the boundaries. The authors are grateful to Davide Ravasi, James Hayton, Jörg Sydow, Sara Carter, and seminar participants at Aalto University, Strathclyde University, and the Academy of Management Conference for their valuable feedback on earlier drafts of this article.
Both authors have contributed equally to this publication.
Citation
Zhang, Y. and Biniari, M.G. (2021), "Forging a collective entrepreneurial identity within existing organizations through corporate venturing", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 27 No. 6, pp. 1502-1525. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-08-2019-0492
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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