Entrepreneurship as Practice; Entrepreneurial Identity Construction; Narrative Identity; Collective Action; Conversational Experiential Learning; Social Entrepreneurship
Abstract :
[en] Taking a multiple-practitioner perspective on entrepreneurial identity construction, we explore how identities can be co-constructed through social interactions. In the context of a social entrepreneurship course at a Belgian business school, we stress the role of collective narratives in breaking free of dominant frames of reference and shaping emancipatory ones. As the stories unfold, collective narratives provide opportunities to perform and negotiate dominant identities as discursive resources: to ‘thin’ certain parts and ‘thicken’ other preferred traits. Through collective narrative practices, practitioners can disrupt the dominant individual heroic entrepreneur myth and develop new entrepreneurial identities reflecting an understanding of entrepreneurship as collective action. Our original intervention method, scaffolding conversations, shows how narratives can be collected and analysed at the individual and group levels, providing members with opportunities to reflect on their shared experiences, struggles and hopes.
Research center :
CES - Centre d'Économie Sociale - ULiège [BE]
Disciplines :
General management, entrepreneurship & organizational theory
Author, co-author :
Solbreux, Julie; UNamur - Université de Namur [BE]
Hermans, Julie; UCL - Université Catholique de Louvain [BE]
Pondeville, Sophie; UNamur - Université de Namur [BE]
Dufays, Frédéric ; Université de Liège - ULiège > HEC Liège : UER > UER Management : Entrepreneuriat social et durable ; Université de Liège - ULiège > HEC Liège Research > HEC Liège Research: Social Enterprise and Collective Action for Transition (SECAT) ; KU Leuven - Katholieke Universiteit Leuven [BE]
Language :
English
Title :
It all starts with a story: Questioning dominant entrepreneurial identities through collective narrative practices
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