Managing identity strain in craft-based entrepreneurship: A case of elite chef-owners in London

A growing of body of work on entrepreneurship has investigated the role of identity – an individual’s subjective understanding of who they once were, are at the present, and person they desire to become (Brown, 2015) – in shaping the motivation, decision-making and other critical activities involved with new venture formation (Mathias & Williams, 2014). Interested in the process by which entrepreneurial identity is formed and shaped over time (Leitch & Harrison, 2016), this field of scholarship has argued that starting a business is, at its core, an identity transformation (Burton, Sørensen, & Dobrev, 2016). However, we argue that identity transformation to business owner can be especially difficult for those individuals who already possess a salient professional identity, particularly one rooted in craft work and tied to certain routinized practices and professionally maintained occupational standards (Stinchcombe, 1959)