Sensemaking by minority entrepreneurs: role identities and linguistic embeddedness

Abstract

Language, as a form of contextual embeddedness, often defines how entrepreneurs enact their role identities, as well as restrict, or enable, the scope of their entrepreneurial activities. This study is an analysis of the role of linguistic embeddedness and role identities in the actions of two groups of minority entrepreneurs: immigrants and native minorities. This analysis was done by looking at the sensemaking of entrepreneurial activities, including venture creation and development. In-depth interviews with eight Russian immigrants in Finland and seven Swedish-speaking Finns were analyzed through metaphor analysis. The results show that immigrant entrepreneurs negotiate multiple role identities when realizing entrepreneurial activities and that, because of insufficient linguistic embeddedness in the host country's context, native minority entrepreneurs face less complexity in enacting their role identities than their immigrant counterparts. This study contributes to the literature by focusing on the relatively underexplored interaction between the multiple role identities of an entrepreneur and organizational emergence and development. It also adds to the growing body of research on the role of language in entrepreneurship. RÉSUMÉLa langue, en tant que forme d'int egration contextuelle, d efinit souvent la mani ere dont les entrepreneurs mettent en oeuvre leurs identit es de rôle, et limite ou permet la port ee de leurs activit es entrepreneuriales. Cette etude est une analyse du rôle de l'int egration linguistique et des identit es de rôle dans les actions de deux groupes d'entrepreneurs minoritaires: les immigr es et les minorit es autochtones. Cette analyse a et e r ealis ee au moyen d'un examen de la recherche de sens pour les activit es entrepreneuriales, notamment la cr eation et le d eveloppement d'entreprises. Des entretiens en profondeur avec huit immigr es russes en Finlande et sept Finlandais su edophones ont et e examin es au moyen d'une analyse m etaphorique. Les r esultats montrent que les entrepreneurs immigr es n egocient de multiples identit es de rôle lorsqu'ils m enent des activit es entrepreneuriales, et que, en raison d'une int egration linguistique insuffisante dans le contexte du pays d'accueil, les entrepreneurs issus des minorit es ARTICLE HISTORY

Investigating the Impact of Entrepreneurial Management on Entrepreneurial Competence: Emphasizing the Role of Entrepreneurial Behavior

“…With this approach, factors influencing success or failure in the entrepreneurial process are explained based on the behaviors of entrepreneurial individuals -described as entrepreneurial behavior. Entrepreneurial behavior can be considered as individuals' responses to environmental stimuli or opportunities (Ivanova-Gongne et al, 2024). Entrepreneurial behavior describes individuals' ability to operationalize entrepreneurial concepts in the form of identifying opportunities, innovation, and risk management (Mulasari et al, 2019).…”

Sensemaking of environmental commitment: a socio-historical contextualization of post-Soviet managers’ views

“…We focus only on these three elements of sensemaking as we argue that these are the most relevant in terms of understanding environmental commitment from the perspective of Russian SME middle-aged managers who have been engaged in business activities since the collapse of the Soviet Union. This argument is based on three main lines of thought: Firstly, Russian managers' sensemaking of environmental commitment may be, to some extent, based on their past experiences of conducting business in Russia, including during the Soviet era 1980 s and the turbulent 1990 s and early 2000 s (i.e., 'retrospection') (Crotty, 2016); secondly, the business environment may play a role in managers' understandings of the phenomenon (i.e., 'enactive of the environment') (Ivanova-Gongne et al, 2022); and thirdly, past and present experiences have shaped their identities as managers, and these identities play a role in their perceptions (i.e., 'identity construction') (Ivanova-Gongne et al, 2021). Focusing on these three properties allows the connection of the contextual factors (i.e., retrospection, enactive of the environment) with the cognitive elements (i.e., identity construction) in individual sensemaking.…”

Language Diversity – Multi-Ethnic Migrant and Diaspora Resources for International Business and Entrepreneurship

“…In particular, language has usually not been considered as important for economics (Grin & Vaillancourt, 1997), while research shows that, for example, 9% of Switzerland's GDP is generated by its multilingualism (Bel Habib, 2011). Following the work of prominent scholars on language in the organizational and international business context (Harzing & Maznevski, 2002;Marschan-Piekkari, Welch & Welch, 1999;Barner-Rasmussen, Ehrnrooth, Koveshnikov & Mäkelä, 2014;Ivanova-Gongne, Lång, Brännback & Carsrud, 2021) the multilingual people of Central Asian heritage are addressed here as an economic resource and value representing a partly untapped resource for international business activities (Newland & Tanaka, 2010).…”