I’m a Chef! Negotiating Identity Conflict in Craft-based Entrepreneurship

At its core, starting a business is an identity transformation (Burton, Sørensen, & Dobrev, 2016). However, taking on the new identity of “entrepreneur” can be especially difficult for those individuals who already possess a salient identity rooted in craft work. Whereas craft work is focused on learning a skill slowly and on doing just one thing well over time for its own sake (Sennett, 2008), entrepreneurship imposes upon individuals the need to learn things quickly and to engage in a broader portfolio of activities. For craft entrepreneurs, this invariably means spending some time away from the very craft around which the business is based. We ask, what strategies do individuals use to balance these mismatched identities? And what are the consequences of these identity conflicts?