Drawing on social identity theory, this study investigates in what way the strength of a founder’s Missionary identity affects the relationship between two central activities in the startup process – i.e., discovery and exploitation-related startup activities – and firm emergence. We test our hypotheses using binary logistic regression on a sample of 133 nascent entrepreneurs from a recent longitudinal study. While our results show that discovery-related startup activities are to the benefit of entrepreneurs who identity strongly with a Missionary founder identity, exploitation-related startup activities appear to have a weaker positive impact on firm emergence. We also find indications that founders with a salient Missionary identity are likely to exhibit commitment escalating behavior.
Language
English
Keywords
Missionary founders
Venture creation process
Social entrepreneurship
Startup activities
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Event Title
The 20th Annual Social Entrepreneurship Conference