“Who am I? Who am I becoming? And why does it matter?”: An overview of social entrepreneurs’ identities and their impact on social venturing

TY - CHAP

T1 - “Who am I? Who am I becoming? And why does it matter?”

T2 - An overview of social entrepreneurs’ identities and their impact on social venturing

AU - Drencheva, Andreana

PY - 2023/3/7

Y1 - 2023/3/7

N2 - Like all individuals, social entrepreneurs have identities that help them answer the questions “Who am I?”, “Who am I becoming?”, “Who do I want to be?” based on roles and relationships with others, membership to social categories, and personal characteristics. While identities matter for all individuals, they are critical in social entrepreneurship because they influence who engages in the process and how this process unfolds with lasting impact on social ventures. This chapter provides an overview of social entrepreneurs’ identities, how these identities influence the social venturing process, and consequently how the social venturing process shapes social entrepreneurs’ identities. It enriches portrayals of social entrepreneurs from heroic figures to multidimensional individuals belonging to a heterogeneous category whose work changes how they see and define themselves. Overall, this chapter explicates the bidirectional relationship between social entrepreneurs’ identities and their social ventures and offers suggestions for future research that can enrich our understanding of the actors involved in social entrepreneurship and how this process unfolds.

AB - Like all individuals, social entrepreneurs have identities that help them answer the questions “Who am I?”, “Who am I becoming?”, “Who do I want to be?” based on roles and relationships with others, membership to social categories, and personal characteristics. While identities matter for all individuals, they are critical in social entrepreneurship because they influence who engages in the process and how this process unfolds with lasting impact on social ventures. This chapter provides an overview of social entrepreneurs’ identities, how these identities influence the social venturing process, and consequently how the social venturing process shapes social entrepreneurs’ identities. It enriches portrayals of social entrepreneurs from heroic figures to multidimensional individuals belonging to a heterogeneous category whose work changes how they see and define themselves. Overall, this chapter explicates the bidirectional relationship between social entrepreneurs’ identities and their social ventures and offers suggestions for future research that can enrich our understanding of the actors involved in social entrepreneurship and how this process unfolds.

KW - identity

KW - identity work

KW - identity threat

KW - Social entrepreneurs

KW - Social entrepreneurship

M3 - Chapter

BT - De Gruyter Handbook of Social Entrepreneurship

PB - De Gruyter

ER -