Essays of Enduring in Entrepreneurship

This thesis seeks to understand entrepreneurship as a process of enduring. Enduring refers to the ability to persist in the same state or remain steadfast in the face of suffering or misfortune without yielding. This thesis examines instances of enduring in which entrepreneurs continue their work even when they may not necessarily enjoy it, face significant obstacles and make sacrifices in pursuit of a self-transcendent goal, or navigate failure with silent resilience and courage. The concept of enduring sheds light on an understanding of entrepreneurship that recognizes human vulnerability and weaknesses in liminality and the will to endure, embrace, and ultimately overcome such challenges.
This thesis encompasses four essays that together provide answers to the overarching question: “what is the essence of enduring in entrepreneurship and why does it matter for entrepreneurship theory and practice”. Essay 1 employs the social identity perspective and authenticity literature to understand how rural returnee entrepreneurs tackle community resistance to their social identities. In the second essay, broken dreams of platform drivers in Vietnam are examined through their emotional posts on a social media community, netnography, and literatures on emotions, masculinity, and precarious work. The third essay explores the role of the founder´s negative identity and resistance in the family business succession through narrative ethnography and a family drama. Finally, essay 4, using a quantitative method and PSED I dataset, investigates the role of perceived lack of social support on nascent entrepreneurs´ likelihood of successfully starting a business.
Overall, the thesis contributes to the entrepreneurship literature through explicating the vulnerability of independent male workers in the gig economy, providing a deeper grasp of how authenticity assessments influence entrepreneurs´ social identity development, and underscoring the role of sociocultural context and social support in new venture creation as well as family business succession. Together, the findings better the understanding of the shadows of entrepreneurship and why enduring matters in various entrepreneurial settings. Enduring is then not just about suffering and reducing suffering for entrepreneurs but rather a process of learning about oneself and others and embracing and overcoming entrepreneurial and everyday life challenges as ordinary people, not superhumans, being in the world. The concept of enduring thus invites more scholarly reflections and investigations on research methods and approaches that can extract issues that are often invisible, taken for granted, and hidden within the heart and soul of the entrepreneur and her/his social context.