This is an addition to yesterday's post Is it dangerous to say that entrepreneurs are heroes?
See Does Congruence with an Entrepreneur Social Identity Encourage Positive Emotion Under Environmental Dynamism? by Charles Murnieks, Jeffery S. McMullen & Melissa S. Cardon. From 2017.
Here are excerpts. The part where they mention heroes is mentioned it is in bold red. Where they mention my name is in bold blue within the red.
"Introduction
Comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell (1949) suggests that
most cultures have some version of a “mono-myth,” which describes a journey
that heroic individuals undertake in pursuit of a valuable goal amidst highly
uncertain or perilous conditions. At the beginning of this journey, the
protagonist rarely perceives himself as heroic, and is reluctant to depart on
his quest because the dangers involved seem overwhelming. However, as the
journey unfolds, the protagonist undergoes a transformation. By experiencing
trials and tribulation, and successfully overcoming challenges, the protagonist
becomes a hero. He experiences elation at achieving his goal despite tremendous
adversity, and begins to view himself differently in the process. The mono-myth
narrative is informative because it highlights the tension between the hero and
a hostile environment. Even though the hero is afraid and reluctant to embark
on the journey, the environment is fundamental in helping him to develop. By
achieving his goal despite adversity, he feels heroic. Ironically, the intense
hostility of the environment is actually what makes the story compelling,
because it creates a background against which the protagonist’s actions are
viewed as difficult and ultimately valiant, instead of mundane and ordinary.
Entrepreneurship scholars highlight similarities between
Campbell’s mythological hero and the entrepreneur of entrepreneurship theory
(Catford and Ray 1991; McMullen and Dimov 2013; Morong 1994). Morong (1994), in
particular, illustrates how Schumpeter’s existentialistic portrayal of the
entrepreneur offers an economic equivalent of Campbell’s archetype.
Schumpeter’s (1934) entrepreneur undertakes a journey into an environment
filled with uncertainty and peril where others fear to tread. Theoretical
portrayals of the entrepreneur, such as Schumpeter’s (1934) or Knight’s (1921),
are not isolated musings; they are part of the progressive revelation of the
entrepreneur’s economic role in a market-based society.
Although we employ the mono-myth narrative to emphasize the
importance of the environment in the self-construal of the entrepreneur, we are
mindful of scholars who caution against taking this metaphor too far and
characterizing entrepreneurs as iconic superheroes imbued with extraordinary
qualities (Ogbor 2000; Williams and Nadin 2013). They warn that entrepreneurs
are not atomistic agents of change isolated from social influence (Dodd and
Anderson 2007). They also remind us of the body of trait research that has
failed to define the psychological profile of the fabled entrepreneurial “hero”
(Gartner 1989). Perhaps most relevant to our investigation, these scholars
caution against undersocialized methodologies that favor mythical depictions
while ignoring consideration of the surrounding environment and how it impacts
the entrepreneur’s journey. We wholly concur that entrepreneurship is more than
an individualistic act and entrepreneurs themselves must be studied as social
animals connected to context (Bruyat and Julien 2001; Dodd and Anderson 2007).
Our reference to the mono-myth is meant to reinforce the idea that
entrepreneurs do not develop their self-portrayals absent external input.
Rather, the opposite is true; their selfperception is tied to their
surroundings. Despite the emergence of studies that are beginning to explore
how socio-environmental factors influence entrepreneurs (e.g., Fauchart and
Gruber 2011; Powell and Baker 2014), significant gaps still exist concerning
the black box of different facets that are influenced and the manner in which
these interactions occur. An empirical void still surrounds the specific
constructs involved and the nature of their relationships. We address these
gaps, by focusing explicitly on entrepreneur social identities and the positive
emotions they generate. This approach is valuable because it integrates social
influences (in the form of social identities) and environmental factors to
determine how they impact one very specific, and important, aspect of the
entrepreneurial journey: the feelings the individual experiences as s/ he works
to found a new enterprise.
Social identities are cognitive schemas that incorporate
meaning and expectations into social structure, thus translating general prescriptions
for perception and feeling into specific imperatives at the individual level
(Mead 1934; Stryker and Burke 2000). The entrepreneur social identity
encompasses a host of characteristics that demarcate it from others in society.
For this study, we concentrate on entrepreneur social identities defined by a
connection to creating and founding1 new organizations (Bruyat and Julien 2001;
Gartner 1989, 1990). We contend that as individuals grow closer to the prototype
of the entrepreneur social identity, positive emotion (PE) is generated.
Moreover, we posit that the environment plays a key role in how the individual
interprets the journey toward achieving congruence with the entrepreneur social
identity. Thus, this paper addresses two primary research questions: (1) what
is the effect of social identity congruence on entrepreneurs’ positive
emotions, and (2) how does environmental dynamism moderate this relationship?
In a manner analogous to the mono-myth narrative, we argue
that dynamic environments which appear turbulent may facilitate an individual’s
entrepreneurial journey. Whereas environmental dynamism is a deterrent to the
average everyman, it may increase the PE generated among entrepreneurs. Our
logic draws from other social identities that call on actors to exhibit
prototypical characteristics within perilous environments. For example,
soldiers and firemen both seek to conform to their social identities despite
threats to their own lives inherent in doing so. Their assumption of the
characteristics prototypical of these identities is made heroic to some extent
by the environment in which they operate. Typically, carrying a child out of a
house on a normal day may not be viewed as valiant or result in high levels of
PE. However, undertaking this action in a war zone, or when a house is burning
and engulfed in flames, changes the meaning of the action as well as the
generation of emotion. In this sense, achieving congruence with the social
identity of a soldier or a fireman, amidst a challenging environment, yields
higher positive emotion. In fact, it is possible that this PE satisfies “the
need to feel alive” which Campbell claims underlies life’s vicissitudes and
results from overcoming one’s fears to act courageously in the face of daunting
surroundings."
"Conclusion
Our purpose in this study was to undertake an empirical
investigation of the interaction between how entrepreneurs view themselves and
how the external environment acts to influence those perceptions. Our findings
lend credence to the fact that positive emotion among individual entrepreneurs
is influenced by the congruence an individual experiences between their
self-concept and the social identity of entrepreneur, an effect that is
heightened by environmental dynamism. We take up the line of research initiated
by Farmer, Yao, and KungMcintyre (2011) into entrepreneur identities, and hope
to open the door to further empirical investigations into the burgeoning
theories and questions that are developing in this stream. Some scholars
suggest that civilization is a story about our endless attempt to reduce
uncertainty and control our environment (North 2005). This highlights the
importance the environment plays in our own existential struggle to achieve
effectance. Indeed, Campbell (1949) argues that our primal drive is not the
will to pleasure or power, but rather the simple desire to feel alive and that
this comes from overcoming uncertainty."
