Contextualizing founder identity in coworking spaces

Bouncken, Ricarda B.; Brownell, Katrina M.; Gantert, Till Marius; Kraus, Sascha

doi:10.1080/00472778.2022.2051180

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 121 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This empirical setting provided respondents who are in a state of in-between-ness (Beech, 2011) as they journey towards becoming entrepreneurs (Steyaert, 2007), within the parameters of identity formation and new firm creation (Foy and Gruber, 2021). University incubators typically provide access to mentors (Bergman and McMullen, 2022) and co-working facilities (Bouncken et al, 2022), making it easier for aspiring entrepreneurs to establish their own ventures, becoming incubator tenants. Selecting founders in nascent stages (Hoang and Gimeno, 2010) provides the best setting to observe how aspiring entrepreneurs navigate the boundaries between their own individual self-concept and the organisational identity of the new venture.…”

Section: Research Setting and Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Making sense of identity transitioning within the new venture creation process

Hoyte,

Noke

2023

IJEBR

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

PurposeThis study aims to explore how aspiring entrepreneurs navigate between their own individual self-concept and the organisational identity of the new venture during the process of new venture creation.Design/methodology/approachThe study draws on three cases of aspiring entrepreneurs within a UK-based university incubator in the process of “becoming” entrepreneurs. Semi-structured interviews and secondary data were collected and analysed using a flexible pattern matching approach.FindingsThe data illustrated parallel identity and sensemaking processes occurring as the aspiring entrepreneurs navigated towards new venture formation. For the organisational identity process, three key stages were found to occur: referent identity labelling, projection and identity reification. Concurrently the sensemaking process made up of creation, interpretation and enactment were seen to enable identity transitioning mechanisms: cue identification, liminal sensegiving and recognition of formal venture boundaries, which led to the organisational identity being formed.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is exploratory in nature thus future research is required to clarify the relationship between identity work practices and the process of creating a new venture (Oliver and Vough, 2020). The paper is limited to successful instances of new venture formation, and though this helped to extricate the identity transitioning stages and mechanisms that have thus far remained implicit within the process of new venture creation, it could be extended to examine entrepreneurs who fail to set up new ventures. This limitation opens avenues for further research on identity formation in failed ventures (Snihur and Clarysse, 2022) and on how entrepreneurs negotiate contested identities (Varlander et al., 2020). Furthermore, entrepreneurs take different pathways to new venture formation (Shepherd et al., 2021) and while this study follows the journey of aspiring entrepreneurs who differed in terms of sector, education and prior entrepreneurial experience (Shane, 2003), future researchers could undertake a more in-depth ethnographic study including the effects of incubator setting and how these can be best supported, as this was outside the original remit of this study. Given the importance of the university incubator (Bergman and McMullen, 2022), its role in the construction of new venture identity is an interesting area for future research.Practical implicationsThis study provides a practical contribution into entrepreneurship curricula and incubator training, emphasising the importance of understanding the relevance of the entrepreneur's self-concept in making sense of future venture identities. Through the findings of this study, the importance of cue identification and how aspiring entrepreneurs rely on these to carve out the identity of their budding venture is demonstrated. Incubator spaces may have a role to play in supporting aspiring entrepreneurs to reflect on and interpret feedback (liminal sensegiving) during the venture creation process. Furthermore, both educators and incubator managers need to be aware of the state of in-between-ness aspiring entrepreneurs will face as they carve out the identity of the budding venture. This study enables educators to advise aspiring entrepreneurs that there will come a point on the entrepreneurial journey when they need to emphasise boundary setting between self and organisation to enable organisational identity to be fostered and venture formation realised. This study advises incubator managers to consider whether support around business registrations and creation of business accounts should be provided earlier in the incubation programme to emphasise boundary setting between self and organisation. There is a fruitful avenue for future research to extend the work in this paper to fully understand how this might be taught and practiced in the classrooms.Originality/valueBy extricating the stages of organisational identity formation, often hidden within the new venture creation process, this study has framed new venture creation as a liminal experience and a visible site of identity work. This study presents a process model of the key identity transitioning stages and mechanisms in new ventures, by illustrating how aspiring entrepreneurs' sensemaking influences identity transitions during the process of venture creation.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Research Setting and Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making sense of identity transitioning within the new venture creation process

Hoyte,

Noke

2023

IJEBR

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In wider terms, not only do contemporary coworking spaces provide a rental service of shared tools and facilities, they also put specific effort into designing a powerful "setting" (i.e., the spaces' environment, rules, restrictions, and options) and conducting daily "curation" processes (e.g., promoting collective routines such as weekly breakfasts or ad hoc events) through their community managers to give users a fruitful, rich, and smooth coworking experience (Bouncken et al 2020b(Bouncken et al , 2022Butcher 2018;Merkel 2015;Rese et al 2021). In other words, they set the stage for the emergence of a collaborative working experience among "peers" (Bouncken et al 2020b;, who may have an explicit purpose of social belonging (Garrett et al 2017) or may discover it along the way.…”

Section: The Key Features Of Coworking Spaces As Collaborative Workpl...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Among the many emerging models and archetypes (Avdikos and Merkel 2020;, independently owned coworking spaces (Appel-Meulenbroek et al 2020) are receiving a great deal of attention as they offer users unique opportunities to combine autonomy, self-determination, and cooperation (Waters-Lynch and Duff 2021) through an "orchestrated" (Brown 2017) interplay of formality and informality (Bouncken et al 2020a, b). Coworking spaces portray a new concept of "organizationality" (Appel-Meulenbroek et al 2020;Blagoev et al 2019;Butcher 2018;Garrett et al 2017) based on the following key elements (Bouncken and Reuschl 2018;Bouncken et al 2022;Brown 2017;Bueno et al 2018;Gandini 2015;Garrett et al 2017;Goermar et al 2021;Merkel 2015;Rese et al 2021;Spinuzzi et al 2018). The first is "openness" since coworking spaces are usually open to all kinds of users (based on an explicit membership) and a wide range of external partners.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Key To Happiness In Collaborative Workplaces. Evidence From Coworking Spaces

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This quantitative study explores the significant psychological and behavioral dynamics in coworking spaces. We collected data from a sample of 175 people working in Italian coworking spaces and found that a more cooperative organizational climate increases coworking space users' happiness. We also found that this relationship is positively moderated by several job crafting behaviors. More specifically, when workers are proactive in the work environment, they are more likely to benefit from the potential advantages (resources, challenges, networking opportunities, etc.) that cooperation-oriented work settings provide, which, in turn, amplifies the positive effect of cooperative work settings on individual happiness. These findings make a useful contribution to both the growing literature on coworking spaces and the more general job crafting literature. Indeed, the previous research on both behavioral dynamics that are specific to coworking spaces and on the role played by job crafting in influencing workers' happiness remains limited. The study's managerial implications concern the relevance of establishing a cooperative climate and encouraging workers' proactivity to promote their happiness.

show abstract

“…Although there is literature focused on understanding the startup ecosystem, when the research is focused on understanding the characteristics of cooperative startups, gaps are identified in clear terms of analyzing the impact, opportunities, and challenges of cooperative startups in the current scientific environment. This fact, as pointed out by Hsu ( 2006 ), may be due to the emerging nature of cooperative startups and their linkage to innovation and technology as successful business models in the last decade (Bouncken et al 2022a , b ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overcoming the challenges of cooperative startups businesses: insights from a bibliometric network analysis

2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In recent decades, advances in technology have led to the adaptation of business models to the connected era. This has resulted in the modification of the goals of both startup and cooperative models, leading to the emergence of a new hybrid business model combining the two and known as cooperative startups. The present study aims to investigate the evolution, functioning and characteristics of cooperative startups as a potential research area that may be of future relevance due to its potential growth. To this end, a bibliometric analysis using Web of Sciences academic database and VOSViewer software is conducted to identify specific characteristics, opportunities, and challenges that cooperative startups should understand in order to achieve business success. In this regard, a co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling and keyword concurrency analysis are computed to understand the literature published in this research field to date. The findings of this analysis contribute to the creation of knowledge on cooperative startups identifying 19 future research questions linked to 5 research categories in cooperatives startups: strategy, members of the team, performance, finance and economy and innovation. The results provide insights on the challenges and characteristics of this new business model that is characterized by the management of investments and economy democracy while boosting innovation and handling competence. Finally, theoretical and practical implications are presented.

show abstract

Contextualizing founder identity in coworking spaces

Cited by 9 publications

References 121 publications

Making sense of identity transitioning within the new venture creation process

Making sense of identity transitioning within the new venture creation process

The Key To Happiness In Collaborative Workplaces. Evidence From Coworking Spaces

Overcoming the challenges of cooperative startups businesses: insights from a bibliometric network analysis

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About