Identity co-formation in an emerging industry: forging organizational distinctiveness and industry coherence through sensemaking and sensegiving

We inductively studied the sensemaking and sensegiving processes used by industry founders in the co‐formation of organizational and industry identities in the emerging industry of Service Design. Our findings illustrate how the sensemaking and sensegiving processes that revolved around the new “Service Design” label allowed the two sets of industry founders to forge both distinctive organizational identities and a coherent industry identity. The new label was, thus, used as a central “carrier” for both holding meanings (in terms of distinctive principles and common practices) developed through sensemaking, and for transferring these meanings respectively to organizational and industry identities through sensegiving. These insights illuminate how industry founders can address the tension between organizational distinctiveness and industry coherence in emerging industries, and have important implications for theory and future research on identity co‐formation and its underlying sensemaking and sensegiving processes