The role of self-identity in decision making by entrepreneurs

Questions of self-identity go to the heart of major debates in the decision sciences, such as the relationship between individual and social choice, free will versus determinism, and the basis of personal ethics in decision making (Kahneman & Tversky, 2000; March, 1997; Sen, 1997). In response, much recent scholarship portrays the self neither as an idealised autonomous agent independent from the social milieu, nor as a slave to social and environmental forces. Rather, the decision making self is viewed as both consciously agentic and unconsciously emergent through interactions within the social world (Bandura, 2001; Higgins, 1998b; Schwartz, 2002). The same questions infuse research into the nature of decision making by entrepreneurs. For example, to what extent are entrepreneurs free autonomous individuals, as opposed to being constrained by markets, firms and organizational factors (Krueger, Reilly, & Carsrud, 2000; Schwartz, 2002)? What role does self-identity play in shaping the motivations and goals of entrepreneurs (Goss, 2005; Shaver & Scott, 1991)? To what extent do entrepreneurs self-regulate decision making behavior in the pursuit of an idealized self-concept (Brockner, Higgins, & Low, 2004; Miner, 2000)?