A review of and future agenda for research on identity in entrepreneurship

摘要

Research on identity in entrepreneurship represents a central, dynamic, and quickly growing field of research. Yet, rapid growth has led to a diversity of theoretical conversations and methodological advancements that has yielded a largely disjointed body of existing work. To advance research in this area, we systematically review 180 articles on identity(ies) in en-trepreneurship from the last 20 years. We conducted a bibliometric analysis using terms in the keywords, titles, and abstracts of identified articles to examine the co-occurrence of these terms. We then develop an organizing framework that reflects four unique conversations within the body of research-distinctions, variations, constructions, and intersections-and highlight the key research questions and themes studied with each conversation. We chart a path for future research that reflects the broad spectrum of views in the literature and propose new opportunities for research that takes a network-based approach, explores post-emergent venture states of identity, and moves the study of identity to the digital world of online communities.