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JOCM
18,6 New meanings for entrepreneurs:
from risk-taking heroes to
safe-seeking professionals
594
Ulla Hytti
Business Research and Development Centre, Turku School of Economics and
Business Administration, Turku, Finland

Abstract
Purpose – To underline that viewing entrepreneurship in the context of shifting career roles and
professional identities, gendered organizational life and in the current societal context regarding
working life (ageing, gender discrimination) provides us with new lenses and enables us to perceive
the entrepreneurial identity as fluid and emergent.
Design/methodology/approach – A female entrepreneur’s life-story collected through a narrative
interview is applied in the study. In this paper identities, organizations and societies in change form
the basis for entrepreneurship. Treating entrepreneurship as a social process constrained by time and
place allows it to gain new meanings and understandings of security, reliability, risk-moderation that
it has not previously seen to possess.
Findings – The paper presents the connections of time and place for entrepreneurship; first, by
demonstrating how entrepreneurship as a phenomenon reflects the time and place of investigation;
second, how time and place are applied as important elements in the individual story presented in the
paper, and, third, how readings of time and narrative are applied to make sense of entrepreneurship in
the story.
Research limitations/implications – The paper suggests that the social context (different times,
places as well as, e.g. different roles, social identities and careers) should more frequently be studied
within entrepreneurship research.
Practical implications – By portraying entrepreneurship from the non-economic and non-heroic
standpoint, and reflecting the social changes that surround it, entrepreneurship is potentially made
more accessible for a larger number of people.
Originality/value – The paper refuses the research of entrepreneurs as a general overriding,
economic category and the quest for the “Theory of Entrepreneurship”.
Keywords Entrepreneurs, Women, Self employed workers, Work identity, Narratives
Paper type Research paper

Entrepreneurship as a social process: time and place

Journal of Organizational Change
Management
Vol. 18 No. 6, 2005
pp. 594-611
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0953-4814
DOI 10.1108/09534810510628521
All the beauty of the winter can be found in any single snowflake[1].
In traditional entrepreneurship research it is customary to perceive and understand
entrepreneurship as something extra-ordinary and something highly different from
wage-work where the previous incorporates elements of independency,
initiative-taking and risk-bearing and is particularly suited for certain (types of)
people, not “mere mortals” (Mitchell, 1997). This perception has been reflected in the
entrepreneurship research as the prevailing quest the “Definition for an Entrepreneur”
and for a “Theory of Entrepreneurship” (Bygrave, 1989; Carland et al., 1988;
Davidsson, 1992). Recently, we have acknowledged that entrepreneurship is a field
with a divergence and multitude of both theoretical assumptions and methods that are
grounded in very different ontological and epistemological assumptions, and, thus, New meanings
they cannot be grouped into or even be seen leading to a comprehensive theory of for entrepreneurs
entrepreneurship. The emphasis has been shifted towards understanding
entrepreneurship as a social and spatial practice that gains new meanings in the
different times and places (Gartner, 2001; Kovalainen, 2001).
One of the most compelling suggestions has been to view entrepreneurship not
merely as an economic activity but also as a social activity, which shapes and is shaped 595
by our society (Steyart and Katz, 2004). Hence, time and place become crucial for
explaining and understanding entrepreneurship. The meanings and contents for
entrepreneurship in different places can change over time. Therefore, for example,
longitudinal analyses of the changes in entrepreneurial activity (Reynolds et al., 2003)
or of cultural understanding of entrepreneurship in different countries and regions
become interesting (Hyrsky, 1999). If entrepreneurship is understood from this social
rather than the economic perspective, then it becomes equally difficult to define exactly
“who is an entrepreneur”. An entrepreneur is an ambiguous and shifting concept that
gains new meanings and understandings through the course of time and place
(Warren, 2004). For researchers of entrepreneurship this means that we need to
produce research that is strongly rooted in the context and where we understand the
role of time and place in entrepreneurship research. This point-of-view casts doubt in
the possibility of producing research results that could be transferable and easily travel
through time and place, i.e. of producing “truths” about the nature of entrepreneurship
and entrepreneurs, respectively. The abandonment of “A theory” or of “the Definition”
gives room for other, complementary point-of-views (Gartner, 2001; Kovalainen, 2001).
The role of entrepreneurs as active agents in constructing new meanings for
entrepreneurship and legitimate entrepreneurial careers provides a new perspective
into entrepreneurship research (Thomas and Linstead, 2002 for this argument in
relation to middle managers).
In this paper a narrative analysis of a female journalist entering self-employment is
presented in order to question the traditional unidimensional meanings and attributes
assigned for entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs. Owing to the changes in the societal
and organisational level, entrepreneurship is acquiring new meanings and
understandings that are also reflected in the personal level – in our personal and
professional identities.
The context applied in this paper is, firstly, new career thinking that considers
careers to consist of several phases of which entrepreneurship might only be one
among other phases and career choices (Dyer, 1994; Mallon, 1998). In the field of
entrepreneurship and career theories the push and pull dichotomy has been utilised
when analysing why people take the decision to become an entrepreneur or change
jobs, i.e. what factors are pushing or pulling individuals to make these decisions
and moves. This dichotomy if taken as an either or question is reductionist and
stereotypical resulting in understandings that do not account for the relationship
between pull and push, or more generally the complexity of factors at work.
However, it seems that the push factor, the dissatisfaction and disillusionment
within the organisation may be an important trigger in the entrepreneurial process
(Mallon and Cohen, 2001). In a given place and time, entrepreneurship may be the best
or only solution even for the committed, risk-averse journalist. This paradox will be
highlighted in the story presented in this paper. Secondly, the paper assumes that the
JOCM professional identities are not fixed and stable, but fluid, inconsistent, emergent and
18,6 paradoxical (Linstead and Thomas, 2002; Thomas and Linstead, 2002). An example
would be of medical doctors who are taking over more and more managerial and
entrepreneurial functions and roles creating potential paradoxes between the different
identities (Llewellyn, 2001).
Thirdly, this paper analyses entrepreneurship in the framework of the changing
596 organisational life. Working in organisations during financially difficult times makes it
necessary to play the “being busy and important member of the community” – game in
order to portray an image of a good and efficient worker and to assure their own worth
over the others. Organisational politics, being a complex mixture of power, influence
and interest-seeking begin to dominate individual activity in the workplaces (Vigoda,
2002). Insecurity and risk are seen to characterise the contemporary experience of
work, leaving individuals responsible for the construction of their position in the
labour market. Careers have traditionally provided a set of organising principles
around which professional employees in organisations have been able to structure both
their professional and private lives. There has been a “psychological contract” between
the employer and employee based upon loyalty and commitment to the organisation in
exchange for the incremental increases in authority, status, and financial
remuneration. The combined promise of job security and advancement has
constituted the major reward for the middle-class career (Wajcman and Martin,
2001). This is no longer the case in current day organisations as a dramatic change has
taken place in work life. Employee loyalty and commitment are still the expected norm
in organisations, but this does not result in a secure job. In addition, the temporary
workers do not have the same opportunities as others to gain support from stable
groups in the workplace since their work is more focused on goals and tasks,
short-term personal interaction, effectiveness, rationality and immediate responsibility.
The temporary jobs also constitute a problem for the professional, social identity as the
fear of losing one’s position is always present (Lindgren and Wåhlin, 2001), which is
also illustrated in Marge’s story.
Fourthly, this paper frames entrepreneurship in the context of ageing and gender
issues. Age and gender discrimination have also been identified as potentially
important sources for growing dissatisfaction with the organisational life. For
example, in their study of the career barriers of older female managers, Still and
Timms (1998) discovered that many of the women were growing tired of the
gender-political game that career advancements necessitated and were looking for
ways of “opting out” through starting their own businesses to escape the working
environment. In the studies analysing entrepreneurship and gender with
the entrepreneurship research it has been suggested the masculine image of the
entrepreneur is emphasised and the female entrepreneur is presented as “the other”.
This is done by presenting the female entrepreneur as the exceptional
individual, over-emphasising the differences between the men and the women or
constructing the “good mother” by creating a feminine, caring entrepreneurial model.
Nevertheless, the individuals have also power to reject these images and assumptions
and to construct an entrepreneurial identity against these assumptions, for example, by
using them as resources for their story (Ahl, 2002; Bruni et al., 2004) that can be seen
also from Marge’s story.
 The working population in the Western countries is ageing. This development New meanings
provides both opportunities and threats. In the coming years it is suggested that for entrepreneurs
organisations will be deprived of skilled and professional workers providing
opportunities also for new businesses. At the same time, ageing is also a “problem”
since the ageing workers are considered to be a burden in the workplaces due to their
outdated skills, attitudes or competencies and their assumed incapability of developing
new skills or competencies. This has resulted in age discrimination in the labour 597
market with findings suggesting that people over 45 are finding it difficult to find a
new job, older people are more easily dismissed than younger people or directed into
early retirement, and hence, the degree of people over 55 in the labour market is steeply
declining (Yearta and Warr, 1995; Arrowsmith and McGodrick, 1997; Taylor and
Walker, 1997). In this paper I will present how these practices are applied to frame also
the individual career possibilities.

Methodology: narrative research and constructing an entrepreneurial

identity
Many writers have pointed out the benefits of narrative research in studying identities
(Goodson, 2001; Johansson, 2004). This is because the narrative approach gives
prominence to human agency and imagination (Riessman, 1993). The process of
identity creation or development could be understood as a process of self-reflection that
unfolds in the interaction between the self and its social context (Wåhlin, 1999).
Life-stories are tools for life-management, arenas for identity work, where one deals
with the relation of the past to the present, searches for the already been and
experienced in order to understand and structure the present guided by the wisdom of
emotions (Vilkko, 1997).
Narrative interviews or story-telling interviews enable the participant to tell their
own stories and not need to accommodate into the preconceived categories set by the
interviewer (Mishler, 1986). On the other hand one could argue that researchers have
always been interested in the stories the research participants want to tell. The
difference lies, however, in that in narrative research stories are seen to be fundamental
to knowing, not merely repositories of knowledge and information (Johansson, 2004).
Life and story are not separable but they are internally related; one does not exist
without the other. Human life is interpreted in stories and human life is a process of
narrative interpretation. In a way narrative is seen to be constitutive of human
experience and action (Carr, 1986; Widdershoven, 1993; Riessman, 1993).
The use of narrative analysis as a method implies firstly that what is being spoken is
not the only focus of our interest, but also the way of speaking. This leads us to think
that our ways of talking are not neutral, but they propose different roles we have and
take, different positions against others and patterns of rights, privileges and
obligations (Shotter, 1989). Language is applied to make sense of our ideas or things
that happen to us (Bruner, 1986). Therefore, things do not merely happen and take
place but their meaning is depicted in the stories that we tell about these events.
These meanings need not to be coherent, unitary and fixed but they may remain
contradictory, blurred and elusive. In narrative research the focus is on analysing these
meaning making structures. The plot that emerges from the story with its sequential
structure is under analysis. Sensemaking is an important part of the process as it is
the medium that enables introduction of new events into the plot in a way that they
JOCM become understandable, i.e. make sense (Czarniawska, 1998; Czarniawska-Joerges,
18,6 1995).
One of the most important features of narratives and narrative analysis is the
concept of time. There are two different times present in the narrative – the time of
remembering (present) and the time of the event (past). Thirdly, one can also see that
life story interviews also reveal something about the future (Järvinen, 2000; Linstead
598 and Thomas, 2002). Only from the perspective of the end do the beginning and the
middle make sense. However, without the past and future there can be no present and
thus no experience at all (Carr, 1986).
Traditional qualitative analyses often fracture the text in the service of
interpretation and generalisation. Researchers analyse themes – what is being
spoken – and they organise their reports around these themes. However, as the
narrative forms are essential meaning-making structures, hence, these structures need
to be preserved, not fractured (Riessman, 1993). Although difficult in the compressed
article format with certain conventions regarding the number of words and section
reserved for “results”, I have tried to maintain the meaning-making structures of
Marge’s story in this paper by presenting it as an individual story.
I rely on the idea of narrative identity – the idea that identity is the product of, and
realised in, narrative accounts of individuals’ past, present and future. The narrative
account is linked to the action – I do not consider it as a mere product of the human
thought but much of what is being narrated are stories of what has happened, taken
place, what actions were taken to lead to a particular situation (Bruner, 1990, p. 105).
The often cited quote from Polkinghorne (1988, p. 150) succinctly captures the idea of
the narrative construction of identity:
. . .we achieve our personal identities and self-concept through the use of narrative
configuration, and make our existence into a whole by understanding it as an expression of a
single unfolding and developing story. We are in the middle of the stories and cannot be sure
how they end; we are constantly having to revise the plot as new events are added to our
lives. Self, then, is not a static thing nor a substance, but a configuring of personal events into
a historical unity which includes not only what one has been but also anticipations of what
one will be.
The narrative identities develop in the meaning-making processes with regard to other
people and culture. There are no fixed, externally or internally given meanings, but
they are being constructed in a dialogue between ideas and the world (Bruner, 1986). In
this view, identities are not created neither internally in the entrepreneur’s mind, nor
externally by the society and its structure but constructed dialogically between
entrepreneurs and others in everyday conversations and life (Cunliffe, 2001). This
social constructionist approach rejects the idea that an individual is a unique, stable
and whole entity, and adopts the idea that an individual should be seen as a
socio-historical and socio-cultural product (Weigert et al., 1986). Social identity reflects
the fact that individuals regularly identify themselves, and are identified by others,
with reference to a set of standardized categories or positions (e.g. gender, occupation).
The existence of multiple identities has been accepted elsewhere but this is followed
by the idea that those identities must be managed. However, if we accept the identity is
tied to a particular position in space and time, then they do not necessarily need to be
managed but can co-exist (Hermans, 2001a). Analysing contradictions or ambivalence
in the identity talk could be the solution to understanding multiple identities
(Blumenthal, 1999). The answers of the narrator may be different depending from what New meanings
point of view the person is narrating from – for example whether as an entrepreneur or for entrepreneurs
a journalist. This focus on how people construct identities for themselves leads us to
the notion of identity work (Fournier and Lightfoot, 1997). Identity work is about the
way people position themselves in discourse, how they attach themselves to certain
issues, using and combining texts and materials, to articulate and give meanings for
themselves and their actions. Identity is constructed through a positioning in 599
discourse, as a performance created and sustained through textual labour. Identity is
not pre-given or fixed – it is always emergent (Linstead and Thomas, 2002; Thomas
and Linstead, 2002).
This study is based on a larger narrative study of entrepreneurs (Hytti, 2003). I have
gathered the material by conducting a life-story interview with Marge in order to
construct her life story as a self-employed. The main focus of the interview was for
Marge to reflect on the important events and people regarding her entrepreneurial
career. Although narrative research is seen to open up to the experiences and
categorisations of the participant as opposed to the researcher, I would argue the
necessity to understand and examine the role of the researcher in co-constructing the
research material (Roulston et al., 2001). Hence, the story also aims to portray my
presence in the field. Although Marge is relatively free to craft her story in the
interview, it would be naı̈ve to assume that my own role in the story would be limited
to that of a passive listener. It is not possible to capture lived experience, but the
experience is created in the social text written by the researcher (Denzin, 1997; Lincoln
and Denzin, 2000). The interviews are not without constraints because of the interview
setting – there is an asymmetric interviewing format that remains visible in the
one-way issuing of questions (Roulston et al., 2001) that is partially broken only on a
few occasions because the participant – Marge – wanted to have feedback and
interaction. In fact, she sometimes asks for my intervention directly but more
commonly a pause in the narration would create a space for my intervention. It is
possible to analyse my own role in crafting the story, for example, by analysing also
the cues I give the participant to tell her or his story in a particular way, whether it is
accepted or rejected or the way I respond to the participant (Jokinen, 1999).
Furthermore, the story of our experience is constitutive of the experience. When the
telling of a story is met with questions or criticism the story is being organised or
reorganised. In a way, on these occasions life can have new meanings that the narrator
has not been aware of before (Carr, 1986). These examples illustrate the role of the
researcher. For this study, I have talked to Marge only once. The story is being
generated on that occasion for an audience consisting of Marge, myself and possibly
other parties who are not there (for example, bank managers or other people in Marge’s
close networks). The story covers more or less the lifespan of Marge as an entrepreneur
having connections to other identity positions in a compressed format. In the analysis
I take this compressed story as my starting point, this is the story Marge has wanted to
tell me, a researcher interested in entrepreneurial stories. The question remains,
however, how much I should say based on this interview. How will Marge feel when
reading the story that I have authored as research text? Am I invading her personal
space and giving new meanings to her life that she does not recognise or outright
refuse to accept? How will I justify my interpretations? It is in the writing that I can try
to offer the readers the opportunity of exploring the relationship between myself and
JOCM Marge as well as the field, “the context” in trying to convey an understanding of the
18,6 research and especially of the interviews as social settings that are inhabited by
embodied, emotional and physical selves that work to shape, challenge, reproduce our
identities (Coffey, 1999).

Marge’s story and the changing identities, organisations and societies

600 Marge (43 years) has been self-employed for about a year and her business is in
providing journalist services for newspapers and magazines. Her decision to enter
self-employment is linked to her dissatisfaction and the insecurity she encountered in
the labour market and in organisational life (see also similar research settings
Lindgren, 2000; Mallon and Cohen, 2001). In the following section, I will demonstrate
that is relevant to understand Marge’s story in the context of shifting career roles and
identities, changing organisational life and in the current societal context regarding
working life (ageing, gender discrimination).
The story presented in this paper is open to different interpretations that link to
the time and place of entrepreneurship. Firstly, it can be read as a contemporary story
reflecting the place (a small region in Southwest Finland) and time (covering the
period of recession in the early 1990s until the turn of the century) that provide the
basis for a particular story of redundancy, unemployment and self-employment.
In this study, self-employment is understood as a form of entrepreneurship. Secondly,
the story incorporates elements that reflect time and place as important elements in
the story (a community gives boundaries to occupational positions available,
economic situation limits the career alternatives) and thirdly, the story provides
readings of how time and narrative are applied to make sense of entrepreneurship in
the individual story.

Presenting the scene

I call Marge to set an appointment for our meeting. She has participated in another
research project investigating unemployed people that have received start-up
financing (Lehto and Stenholm, 2001). Hence when calling her to inform her that she
has been handpicked from the survey respondents, I feel a bit uneasy. I do not want
to label her as “the representative of the unemployed”, but given the background for
my request it would also be unethical to hide the source. Marge is hesitant at first
“I’m not saying that I am refusing to participate”. I try to be very positive and
encouraging and finally we agree to meet at her home that same week. In the
meantime I send her a letter where I introduce my approach and the areas of interest
that I have.
Marge’s story telling style involves quite long narrations and my involvement in the
process is simply to offer some response-tokens (Silverman, 1993) such as “mmms”,
nods or laughs which serve to indicate that I am listening. The narration is, therefore,
quite one-sided, which is contrary to normal coffee table conversations. The
response-tokens ease the tension and the entrepreneur is not forced to speak to the
tape-recorder alone while the interviewer is just listening. However, there are several
occasions where Marge feels that she has given enough information about a particular
event or that she feels she has gone off at a tangent and gives me a direct indication to
ask for more. “But the . . . yes? Ask me more, I’ve lost the thread. I cannot remember
when I got lost”.
 Her questions could be understood as “exit talk” to allow me to move onto the next New meanings
question (Riessman, 2002). They are also a means to make sure that she is talking for entrepreneurs
about the “right” issues and not to “reveal” anything that is not useful for my research.
Although I do not ask many questions in the interview, Marge’s narration is cued by
my letter, which she uses to frame her story. She makes several direct references to it
and to the concepts raised in it; like “when it comes to identity” when she is making a
note on her identity development so it seems clear that she is well prepared for the 601
interview. For example, she sometimes addresses herself like “what was the third thing
again” indicating that she has thought over the process of becoming self-employed and
the related factors and events that she wants to tell me in the interview.

Weighing and pondering upon the idea of setting up the company

Marge starts her story by telling of the 3-4 year thinking process that preceded the
decision of becoming self-employed, emphasising strongly the role given to weighing
the decision, evaluating the options and gaining courage. Marge’s perception of herself
is that she belongs to the group of entrepreneurs that are pushed into entrepreneurship
(Mallon and Cohen, 2001).
So last year I set up [the firm] for real, that I really had the courage and all . . . but I had to
think to think about it for 3-4 years at least. And the way I have started up so. . . I’m one of
those that have more push pressure than a tremendous urge to become an entrepreneur.
But I have a background in temporary jobs and the like. . . So after the long thinking process
I gradually was able to convince myself that it is possible to go forward this way also. . .
Marge’s story is focused on her anxieties and fears related to becoming self-employed.
A lot of energy is put into calculating, self-assuring, pondering whether she would
have the nerve, whether the business idea is good enough, whether she could do
enough marketing for the company to make it successful. The reasoning is constructed
into a narrative of her professional history and the dissatisfaction it created. She was
working in the Littleborough News during the recession of 1994 and the economic
circumstances resulted in strong pressure within the newspaper to cut costs. The
organisation became a site of struggle where all the employees were engaged in a
survival of the fittest type of battle where it was necessary to try to make oneself
important and necessary within the organisation by downplaying the roles of others as
less important and, hence, dispensable (Vigoda, 2002). Finally, there was a conflict
between Marge and the editor-in-chief and Marge decided to leave the newspaper and
move abroad with her husband to wait for the recession to abate. Although it was a
risky decision to quit her job it is explained firstly by the unbearable situation at work
and secondly by her belief that “a laborious person will always find a job”. At the time
her husband was also unemployed and free to move, which facilitated her decision.
The couple works abroad for a year and returns to Finland in 1995 only to find that the
economic situation had not improved.
On her return Marge participates in a six-month computer course after which she
receives a job as a substitute for a year. Then she takes a course in multimedia and
the idea of setting up a company starts to develop. Although later she emphasises the
journalist identity over the entrepreneurial one the existence of both is available
through the long traditions within the industry of freelance journalists who work for
various newspapers and magazines, so she still has a way of building an
entrepreneurial identity from the journalist perspective.
JOCM Although in this sense Marge develops entrepreneurship as a feasible choice for her
18,6 as a journalist, the issue of marketing and her ability to do it, or her willingness as a
journalist to engage in marketing are made an issue in the story. For her marketing is
especially in conflict with her journalist identity, her values and ways of thinking are
rooted in the 1970s in the famously radical university she went to. When talking about
marketing and the university environment of the 1970s Marge laughs aloud
602 further emphasising the unthinkability of linking the two. There is, however, a
curious distinction between against-the-journalist-identity-marketing and
accepted-marketing-of-your-skills. From the freelancer perspective Marge finds it
acceptable, for example, to go around and present herself, her experience and skills to
the different newspapers and magazines informing them that she is available. The
unacceptable form of marketing is not raised in the story but it could possibly deal
with direct advertising or an active persuasion of customers.

Betrayal of the working life

The university background and the “different times”, which informed her values and
thinking are emphasised in the story before returning to the practical situation
preceding the start-up decision. After the multimedia course Marge receives a
part-time, temporary job in another newspaper and she forgets the idea of becoming an
entrepreneur. However, in the next phrase she says “it [the idea of setting up the
company] was still there” and now in retrospect she thinks it could have been possible
to start working towards this objective since she was working only part-time. As our
interview proceeds I learn that this part-time job turns out to be a negative experience
but also an important trigger for the setting up the company. Therefore, the
retrospective view suggests that she might have avoided the negative experience by
establishing the company at that point.
The turning point comes when the region faces an economic downturn and,
therefore, cost savings are necessary at the newspaper.
At the end of the year 1999 the important advertisers informed suddenly that they won’t
continue their annual contracts at the same level as previously and it was necessary to save a
quarter of a million even from the expenses of the editorial staff so all temporary workers
were laid off.
Later in the interview: So the editor-in-chief took me as the first example that that person is at
least futile that she will be dismissed. That he had considered me all the time as a tool to solve
a temporary problem.
Marge talks later about acting as an entrepreneur and no longer having to wait that the
editor-in-chief “drops a hot stone in my head”.
At first she describes the event in a very impersonal manner but later this incident is
described in a very personal way. This came as a shock to her and she felt betrayed
which she describes through a metaphor of a hot stone. It seems important for the
narrator to take the audience into the scene of the traumatic event by verbalising it as a
very concrete event in order for the audience to really feel the hotness of the stone
hitting one’s head and the related pain. The actual event – being laid off – is not
sufficiently emotional or tangible to carry the feeling of the event. It is reduced to being
part of general management talk, which we read in the media everyday.
Setting up the firm New meanings
So, Marge finds herself unemployed and signs up for an entrepreneurship course for entrepreneurs
targeted at potential entrepreneurs. Simultaneously she is offered freelance work in
another newspaper as the result of a sick leave vacancy. Thus, she is taking the course
and working as a freelancer. After the two-month course Marge makes up her mind
and sets up the company. In her story this decision is supported by a multi-layered
account of reasons and explanations. There are, firstly, the rational elements. 603
Journalists are getting older along with the rest of the working population, which will
result in increased sick leave, which provides work opportunities for freelancers in the
media industry (identification of business potential). She has also established
relationships with several newspapers in the course of her professional career. It is
these experiences that contribute to her belief that there is a need for a journalist like
her with a depth and breadth of experience and expertise.
Secondly, she has applied for different jobs and has been interviewed for many. In
one particular case she felt especially irritated where a young male graduate with less
experience was chosen for a job she felt she would have been good at. These
experiences led her to develop her personal theory that a woman in her 40s would not
get a permanent job in the small town and region where she was living. By labelling
this as Marge’s personal theory I want to emphasise that it is this guideline she uses to
interpret the world and make her choices and decisions. From this perspective the idea
of getting a permanent job is blocked from her and the remaining alternatives are
either being hired for short-term contracts or becoming self-employed. The short-term
employment contracts pose a problem for her identity as can be seen from the
following quotes:
From the point-of-view of the identity I thought it was terribly hard when I did those temp
jobs that if you’re working somewhere for a year so you learn to identify yourself as part of an
organisation, that I work here and I introduce myself that this is Marge Pitt from
Littleborough News or something. And then I’m no longer that, that I do not do the same
things so. . . [Sighs] and when you go through this many times [. . .] Now I want something
that is and stays, that don’t change constantly.
That although in a way I am a sort of substitute and temporary worker it is in my own hands
much more. I am this kind of media entrepreneur and because I offer my services I don’t have
to change who I am because of who I work for – this is exactly the stability I sought where
you do constantly have to change who and what you are.
The meaning of a job or an organisation where one works extends beyond fulfilling
the basic needs of earning money to live on and having something meaningful to do
with one’s time. Being employed in an organisation provides us with a social
identity. Thus, having a social identity and to have personal control over that
identity also contributed to Marge’s sense making behind the decision to become an
entrepreneur. As a self-employed in the media business she is able to maintain a
stable social identity. This stability provides her with a source of security that she
cannot find as a wage worker. In the above quote Marge also identifies as a
particular type of an entrepreneur – a service provider in the media sector, which is
important for her to legitimise her endeavour. This construction of a legitimate
entrepreneurial identity that is acceptable for her is an overriding theme in Marge’s
story.
JOCM Marge: Surprisingly the biggest resistance came from home.
18,6 Ulla: Hmm. . .
Marge: My husband found it difficult to understand that it was possible to work that way,
that this sort of entrep . . . that it did not quite fit with his ideas of what business is about. In
the construction industry it is totally different. He can’t understand that it supports itself like
604 this, that it is something where nothing material is being transported and the aim is to collect
the salary money for oneself. So that for him it just did not feel like something laughter that
could work and succeed. And many times he explained how unrealistic my ideas were . . . ,
that no, no-one would pay for that, . . .But at some point I got angry, and well, he hasn’t said it
again.
Ulla: He believes already?
Marge: Yes. That when in fact I get, I get a bigger part, a bigger sum that I can count as my
own salary than t he took in his first years. [] This is like, what is the right word, selling
expert services in a way. A little bit like one would be a lawyer or, or, some consultant, a bit
like that.
The image of an entrepreneur that is suggested by Marge’s husband is taken as a
resource – a counterpart – against which it is possible to re-construct another but a
legitimate entrepreneurial identity. The better income is applied as the “final” proof of
legitimacy in the story.

Reflecting on entrepreneurial identity

The first year has gone as planned which Marge explains is the result of her long
thinking process before the decision, legitimising it as a serious venture as opposed to
foolish play and by the related entrepreneurial experiences (working as a freelancer)
that prepared her for it. She has, however, been positively surprised by the long-term
contracts that she has received as a freelancer because normally smaller newspapers
cannot hire professional assistance but have to rely more on amateurs. This part of the
story reinforces the identification of Marge as an experienced and professional
journalist, which is the base from which the entrepreneurship story is also narrated
(see also Mallon, 1998 for a discussion of management consultants who refuse to
identify themselves as entrepreneurs).
There is a pause to my question of what are the best things about being an
entrepreneur. Then, the “certain freedom” is given as an answer in Marge’s story. The
freedom in Marge’s story does not refer to independence since she has been working
independently and alone as a journalist but the freedom represents being free from
expecting to be laid off from the newspaper. This freedom is also extended to cover the
notion of not being on call 24 hours a day and to be constantly alert to cover anything
which might happen in the region which was part of the job description in her previous
jobs. In her current position she is hired for particular work assignments and she is
responsible to nobody but herself which is a great relief to her.
Although she emphasises the journalist identity in the interview there are also
traces of her determination to pursue the entrepreneurial career at least for a while.
For example, she decides not to apply for a vacancy that opens in a local newspaper.
The job description is similar to one of her previous jobs so it would not have provided
her with new challenges but she is also curious if her current business will take off.
This is, however, linked to her fear of exposing her newfound stable identity when she New meanings
says ironically “There were other reasons for it as well. I thought that if they don’t for entrepreneurs
choose me, how difficult is it for me then”. However, at this early phase of her
entrepreneurial endeavour she leaves the backdoor open. She is not “clinging to the
form of activity” (entrepreneurship) and the choice will be made case-by-case
depending on the contents of the work and the ability to work reasonable hours. There
is still room for her to leave the entrepreneurial position in favour of going to work as 605
an employee in a newspaper.
Throughout Marge’s story it is possible to see that she portrays her identity as a
journalist and to downplay the entrepreneurial identity. She draws a distinction
between herself and some of the entrepreneurs that share different values and thinking.
She does not identify herself with the “tales from the field”, the ideological propaganda.
That entrepreneurs are always oppressed that everything goes wrong and times are awful
and everything is so grim. There is a little bit of negative spirit and then the spirit that
entrepreneurs are in a specific position of being a lot more oppressed than other groups, that
entrepreneurs have to work a lot and you cannot ever take holidays and you are not within
any [systems]. I can really see where these issues come from but I am not altogether
convinced that it is the whole truth.
I have as a wage earner worked entrepreneurially as I am now and received just a cold hand
in return that I don’t. . . That it cannot simply be that the line that entrepreneurs or somebody
else would be only . . . that if somebody works for the municipality that he would be much
different, he does his job well or badly, or feels his responsibility or not but it is the same for
everybody so the curious glorifying [of entrepreneurs] that has been in the forefront, I shun
that a little bit.
Marge rejects the idea of entrepreneurs as a special group that share the qualities of
bearing full responsibility and working harder than other groups, which would largely
distinguish entrepreneurs from other professional groups. This makes sense from the
identity position adopted by Marge negotiated between the journalist and the
entrepreneurial side.

Discussion
The entrepreneurship research has constructed an image of the entrepreneur as
something both “exceptional” and “fixed and stable”. In this paper I have adopted the
point-of-view that identities are emergent, paradoxical and fluid and that the
entrepreneurial career is not reserved for any special group with superpowers and
abilities but is something for us “mere mortals” also (Mitchell, 1997). The meaning of
entrepreneurship for the individual is not pre-given but entrepreneurs are active agents
who construct an entrepreneurial identity by applying their other identities and
positions, their own past and present experiences and future perspectives as resources in
the story (Linstead and Thomas, 2002; Thomas and Linstead, 2002). Time and place are
integral elements to this process. In this paper I argue that this process is re-enforced by
the changes taking place at the individual, organisational and societal level.
Marge’s story is instrumental in learning about several simultaneous and
intertwined change processes that shape our (professional) identities and the roles
assigned for entrepreneurship and work in general. In addition, Marge’s story has been
informative of the ways narratives and stories work. Although Marge’s story is
JOCM narrated in the framework of providing reasons for the start-up it is less clear to what
18,6 extent this was actually visible before the start-up or whether it is made into such
retrospectively. In a similar vein, self-employment also solves another problem, she no
longer needs to work the hours and take all the responsibility for a particular area.
Although this bonus of being a self-employed is given together with the other
explanations and is constructed as a reason for her becoming an entrepreneur, this is
606 something that has only dawned on her later, which she acknowledges in her story.
This is the strength of narrative: the stories are narrated from the present enabling us
to include new events in our life-stories and helping us to make sense of the events
taking place from the current position by giving new meanings to those events. Next
I’ll discuss in more detail about the changes in personal, organisational and societal
level and the ways they are made visible in the narrative.

Identities in change
In Marge’s story attention is caught by the immediate paradox in her story and the
available two, partly contradicting identities in her story and the process of change
from a student in a “radical” University in the 1970s to a “business person”, an
entrepreneur/self-employed. In Marge’s story we can see the shifts between the two
identities (the journalist and the entrepreneur) and the negotiation the ways the two
can coexist in her story/life. The entrepreneurial identity is adopted as a means of
trying to create a sense of security and stability for her social and professional identity.
Paradoxically the entrepreneurial identity is constructed as a means to safeguard the
journalist identity, to be able to work as a journalist in an environment where there is
not a constant pressure of fearing the worst, she can find a secure and stable identity as
a self-employed in the media business. The way to accommodate the two identities in
Marge’s story seems to be related to her finding a way of identifying as a certain kind
of an entrepreneur – a knowledge-based entrepreneur in the media business providing
expert services. Furthermore, she renounces some of the values and thinking in the
entrepreneurship propaganda, for example, from understanding entrepreneurs as a
special, heroic group by making it plain that she has shared the entrepreneurial values
of hardworking and strong sense of responsibility as an employee. The
entrepreneurship is a solution for Marge to take her professional destiny into her
own hands; being a self-employed is a position that cannot be taken away from her by
others.
In the field of entrepreneurship and career theories the push and pull dichotomy has
been utilised when analysing why people take the decision to become an entrepreneur
or change jobs, i.e. what factors are pushing or pulling individuals to make these
decisions and moves (Mallon and Cohen, 2001). In Marge’s case the decision to go into
self-employment is seen to be the only alternative to resolve the situation that results
from problems of working in an organisation (Mallon and Cohen, 2001). Marge’s
experience with job interviews where she was overshadowed by the younger men led
her to believe that the employment markets are not suited for women in their forties. In
order to escape this reality Marge opted out through self-employment (Still and Timms,
1998). The career perspective could be a useful starting point for entrepreneurship
research in general. It would possible to discard the view that successful entrepreneurs
are only those who are able to create long-term entrepreneurship and expand their
companies but to include also those that practice entrepreneurship for a while as part
of their careers (Dyer, 1994; Mallon, 1998). This perspective would downplay the New meanings
perception of entrepreneurs as the “exceptional” people and to understand for entrepreneurs
entrepreneurship as an alternative among the others for most people in certain
situations. This might also help to dilute the masculine image of the entrepreneur in
research and everyday talk. Nevertheless, these images and perceptions can also be
applied as a resource in constructing “alternative” identities. The entrepreneurs are
active agents engaged in constructing an entrepreneurial identity that is legitimate and 607
acceptable (Bruni et al., 2004; Thomas and Linstead, 2002).

Organisations in change
Marge’s story although depicted from the entrepreneurial and self-employment
position is informative of the organisational life in many ways. It informs us of the
tightening atmosphere and increased competition within an organisation during the
financial difficulties. Furthermore, the story is also informative of the increase in
perceived job and employer insecurity and changing role of the “psychological
contract” between the organisation and the employee. Although working hard and in a
responsible way Marge was not able to find her place professionally as a journalist.
The economic crisis that the country faces drives newspapers to cut down costs. People
are hired and made redundant based on the financial situation of the firm, which
cannot be directly influenced by the journalists within the paper. As a result, working
in the organisation makes it necessary to play the “being busy and important member
of the community” – game (Vigoda, 2002).
Employee loyalty and commitment are still the expected norm in organisations, but
this does not result in a secure job. It is possible to interpret that the management
decision to get rid of all the temporary workers in the newspaper violated the
“psychological contract” Marge believed in that hard work would pay off and provide
for security. Furthermore, the recession can be seen to have violated the contract in a
more general sense: it was only then when it became evident that even educated,
laborious people would not necessarily find jobs. As an entrepreneur, she applies the
employer security as a basis for her social identity and is capable of re-constructing the
employer security as an entrepreneur. In a sense, she signs a “new” psychological
contract with herself who she knows to be loyal and trustworthy (Wajcman and
Martin, 2001).

Societies in change
Marge’s story can be seen to reflect changes at a larger societal level as the changes
taking place in work life are also transforming the constructions and understanding of
entrepreneurial life in a more general sense: the once risky choice of becoming an
entrepreneur/self-employed seems less risky in the society if mirrored against the
alternative: wage-work in the private or public sector. At least as an entrepreneur one
has the opportunity of making decisions oneself and not being dependent on some
decisions made at a headquarters tens of thousands of kilometres away. Of course,
small businesses and small business persons are also affected by globalisation, “China
phenomenon” and other current international trends but still they do not have to react
forcefully to share-holder pressures and demands like the multinational companies.
Thus, I argue that entrepreneurship as a career or as a way of earning one’s living is
becoming a more secure alternative with the developments and increasing insecurity
JOCM and risk involved in the current labour market context. Through the changes in the
18,6 working life, organizations and the society at large the divide between wage work and
self-employment becomes blurred: permanent jobs and long careers have ceased to
exist in organizations. Only by setting up one’s own company it is possible to secure a
stable social and professional identity. To be able to work as a professional journalist
with a certain ethical code or in the acceptable conditions, the entrepreneurial position
608 may be adopted. To escape the organisational politics, sex or age discrimination, the
solution to opt out may be through self-employment or entrepreneurship. Hence,
I suggest that there is a need for further study in analysing the “insecurity/security”
inherent to the entrepreneurial processes embedded in the current labour market.
Another societal change reflected in Marge’s story is ageing. Through ageing of her
colleague journalists, Marge has been given work opportunities and assignments.
At the same time the concept of an elderly worker becomes a blurred and stretched
concept (Marge is 43 years of age). Marge’s ageing causes her to believe that she will no
longer find a permanent job but is forced to take only temporary jobs where the fear
of losing her position is always present, thus, presenting a constant threat to
her professional, social identity (Lindgren and Wåhlin, 2001). The growing turbulence
of the labour market will result in the growing number of ageing or elderly people
without jobs: are they doomed outside the labour market or is
self-employment/entrepreneurship their sole chance of finding a new job? Or, will
they become the “cornerstones and valuable assets” for the companies as expressed in
ceremonies and government actions plans? (Yearta and Warr, 1995; Arrowsmith and
McGodrick, 1997; Taylor and Walker, 1997).
In this study I’ve argued that by treating entrepreneurship as a social activity
constrained by time and place we will be able to question some of the “general truths
and known facts” about entrepreneurship. In a given place and time, entrepreneurship
may be the best or only solution even for the committed, risk-averse journalist.
At the individual level the boundaries between traditional career roles and identities
become more blurred. In order to safeguard a role as a professional journalist,
the entrepreneurial position is occupied (Lindgren, 2000). Simultaneously,
entrepreneurship is gaining new meanings of reliability and risk-moderation while
the insecurity and organisational politics within organisations are growing. Through
Marge’s story – the single snowflake – I hope to have told a different story, yet a story
that resonates our knowledge and understanding of entrepreneurship and the ways it
is constantly changing and transforming.

Note
1. Saying borrowed from Steyart and Katz (2004).

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