Abstract
Reading the book, I was inspired. Traditionally, entrepreneurship education has focused on developing enterprises, not entrepreneurs as human actors. However, the study of identity brings new insights and inverts the pedagogical practice in entrepreneurship education. Gradually, the process of becoming an entrepreneur and the concept of entrepreneurial identity have become worth studying.
The book offers a collection of diverse views on the process of becoming an entrepreneur. It gives also some ideas of how to facilitate students to develop their entrepreneurial identity. The book hits the mark saying that there is a fundamental difference between venture development and entrepreneur development. A false assumption is that these two phenomena are the same or the latter is not worth discussion. Accordingly, entrepreneurship has been seen more as an economic phenomenon than a human and cultural phenomenon. This view has so far motivated entrepreneurship education and dominated by the economic paradigm.
The book is divided into two parts. The division helps the reader to discern the multidimensional content. The first part of the book, composed of chapters 1–3, deals with explorations of macro-level identities. In the opening chapter of Part I, there is an inspiring discussion of entrepreneurial identity and professional virtues.
Thomas N Duening presents a concept of an organic identity. He stresses the necessity of identity work, which means that an organic identity construction should become a core element of aspiring entrepreneur acculturation process. He emphasises that the sense of identity is deeply determined by our moral commitments referring to the basic values of a person. I go along with his views; values are the cornerstones of one’s self-identity and a source of well-being in life.
In chapter 2, Rebecca Gill shares the idea of a socially constructed, place-based entrepreneurial identity by presenting a discursive approach to identity. She asserts that an identity does not develop in a vacuum, but it is always influenced by the community and is tightly related to the context and the place. In other words, an identity is developing in reflection with the environment. According to Gill, entrepreneurship is rooted in place, but at the same time, it is also a global and widespread phenomenon. This expands our understanding of entrepreneurship and challenges our attitudes and perceptions about ‘proper’ entrepreneurship.
Chapter 3 discusses the influence of celebrity entrepreneurs in the process of becoming an entrepreneur. Robert Smith and David Boije discuss about ‘value-added’ identities. The concept of an identity is elusive. For me, identity as a concept is tightly related to one’s ‘inner me’. It wells from self-knowledge but it is never just a story. When we use storytelling as a tool in identity work, it means that telling stories about myself I am able to become conscious of ‘inner me’ and create tools for self-regulation.
Nevertheless, the authors succeed to convince me of the power of parody and role of cartoons in the process of identity negotiation. The strength of the article is that using these tools consciously, it is possible to capture stereotypes of entrepreneurs, to dash them and give space for rethinking, to clarify and strengthen one’s entrepreneurial identity based on his or her own values and personal style.
The second part of the book, chapters 4–6, focuses on explorations of micro-level identities as individual phenomena. In chapter 4, Blake Mathias analyses the meaning of entrepreneurial identity versus motivation. In this chapter, the author highlights that entrepreneurs are a heterogeneous group of individuals from different backgrounds and motivations and therefore with invariably changing and emergent entrepreneurial identities. This chapter also contains inspiring examples and exercises ready to put into practice. The most valuable message is that we, as entrepreneurship educators, have an exceptional opportunity to support students to find and develop their meaning of life. That will be the sustainable basis of their entrepreneurial identity instead of focusing on high-flying entrepreneurs, which seems to be a trend.
In chapter 5, Karen Williams Middleton and Anne Donellon detail the learning process by which students adopt an entrepreneurial identity and develop entrepreneurial habits. I agree with the authors that becoming entrepreneurial is a transformational process and experience. The outcome of this process is that the students become aware of their affective, conative and cognitive sensibilities. The process is an exciting expedition to self-regulated learning from student to entrepreneur.
In chapter 6, Matthew L. Metzger discusses how to teach the aspiring entrepreneur. I want to thank the author for his courage to call a spade a spade. Metzger pays attention, for example, to the start-up-ecstasy. Unfortunately, the current view of start-ups as the only respectable form of business narrows the picture of entrepreneurship.
The book introduces earlier models of process-based entrepreneurial pedagogies, for example, the lean start-up model. Those pedagogies have their own strengths if used in proper contexts. Nevertheless, these theories do not give much guidance on how to develop your entrepreneurial identity before entrepreneurship. Chapter 6 opens a new window by introducing the model of virtue-based pedagogy.
Summary
Entrepreneurial Identity: The Process of becoming an Entrepreneur is an interesting book. Most of the time, it was very easy for me to share these authors’ journeys with them. Their enthusiasm for exploring the matter close to my heart, the process of developing an entrepreneurial identity, created a sense of a kinship and community. This impression of similarity and familiarity echoed through the readings in many ways. Definitely, the process of entrepreneurial identity development is worthy of a robust discussion in academia. In summary, Duening and Metzger’s book comprises an enjoyable and stimulating set of reflections on the state of entrepreneurship education and research. I would like to recommend the book to entrepreneurship educators as well as policy-makers, entrepreneurship advisors and consultants.