Exploring professional identity transition: a narrative research study of new entrepreneurs.

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20316451

With an estimated 582 million entrepreneurs globally (Kelley, 2017) and 25 million in the United States (Kelley, Ali, Brush, Corbett, Kim, & Majbouri, 2017), there is a strong interest and perceived value of entrepreneurship as a driver of the global economy (GEM, 2018), as a mechanism for job creation (Audretsch, 2007; OECD, 2015), and as an attractive career option. Despite the significant public and media interest in entrepreneurship, little is understood about the real-life, lived experiences of new entrepreneurs. This dissertation explores the professional identity transition experienced by new entrepreneurs in their first few years of full-time entrepreneurship. This narrative research dissertation records the personal accounts of professional identity transition of 14 entrepreneurs in the United States, within their first 3.5 years, who started full-time entrepreneurial roles as founders or business owners. The framework informing this study combines social identity theory (SIT) and transition theory to understand the phenomenon of professional identity transition as experienced by the participant entrepreneurs. The themes suggest that the lived experience of being a new entrepreneur differs from the common definitions and depictions of entrepreneurs, with the participants reporting on four themes: (a) misalignments with previous employment; (b) reflection of the overall professional identity transition, with a focus on the perspective of entrepreneurship as a pathway to life authenticity or self-realization; (c) identity-related reflections, including reflecting on an entrepreneurial prototype, a prior organizational identity, and previous freelancing employment; and (d) supports and strategies. The conclusions support the need to (a) view entrepreneurship as an identity (Williams Middleton & Donnellon, 2017), (b) approach entrepreneurial prototypes with more intentionality, (c) view entrepreneur mentors and connections as identity guides, (d) support entrepreneurs as they experience changing social connections, and (e) acknowledge that entrepreneurial transitions are viewed relative to what preceded them. The implications for research and practice reflect these conclusions and assert the need for greater recognition of professional identity transitions within their context to provide suggestions for how educators can better support identity transition and prepare aspiring and new entrepreneurs for their new careers.