LWO/SIBS Research Community Seminar – Dr Andreana Drencheva
Title: “Who am I now and why does it matter for the mission?” Responding to identity-implicating experiences in prosocial venturing
Date: 14 June 2023
Time: 14:00-15:30
Location: NUBS.1.13 and Zoom
In response to requests, the seminar will also be on Zoom, assuming the link will work.
https://newcastleuniversity.zoom.us/j/89520070186
Speaker: Dr Andreana Drencheva is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Entrepreneurship at King’s College London (UK)
Abstract:
Prosocial venturing is a platform for identity expression. Yet in their venturing efforts, social entrepreneurs also face identity-implicating experiences that raise questions about who they are and prompt identity work as cognitive, discursive, behavioural, and physical attempts to form, present, strengthen, repair, revise or reject identities. While research provides insights into how social entrepreneurs’ identities influence their intentions and venture missions at the beginning of the entrepreneurial process, we lack understanding of how responding to identity-implicating experiences during the entrepreneurial process may influence the mission of their ventures. Even when broader research streams in entrepreneurship and identity are considered, they provide little insight because they have focused on the impact of identity-implicating experiences for the individual, not the venture. Thus, this study investigates how social entrepreneurs’ identity work during the entrepreneurial process influences the mission of their ventures based on in-depth interviews with 56 social entrepreneurs in the Philippines and Bangladesh navigating the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on their ventures. While all social ventures were impacted by the pandemic, which prompted social entrepreneurs to reflect on their identities, participants faced different identity-implicating experiences and responded to them with different forms of identity work. These differences in identity-implicating experiences and responses influenced the focus of the social entrepreneurs’ venturing efforts during the crisis and ultimately shaped whether they protected, maintained or neglected the social mission of their ventures. Our findings contribute to social entrepreneurship research by 1) explicating how identity mechanisms influence prosocial venturing; 2) defining mission work as a construct; and 3) considering the ethical implications of pivots.
Dr Andreana Drencheva is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Entrepreneurship at King’s College London (UK). Her research interests focus on how individuals start purpose-driven organisations and navigate the tensions between profit and purpose, while maintaining their wellbeing and sense of meaning. Her research has appeared in leading journals such as Business & Society, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Small Business Management, and Journal of Social Entrepreneurship. She has secured over £350 000 in competitive funding from internal and external funders, including Arts and Humanities Research Council and British Academy, to support her own research and the research of doctoral students. She has contributed to or was featured in BBC Radio, The Conversation, The Pioneers Post, The Alpine Review, Sustainable Brands, The Happy Startup School, Leaders Now, Society Matters. She frequently provides research insights on purpose-driven organisations to audiences in academia, business, and civil society. Her passion is working with support organisations to co-create services, programmes, workshops, and toolkits that help (aspiring) social entrepreneurs to develop their ventures, while maintaining their wellbeing.