Abstract

Entrepreneurship research tends to take entrepreneurial status for granted and ignores the fact that “entrepreneur” is actually a more malleable social identity. This research examines the influence of a diverse set of factors and behaviors on individual’s likelihood to identify as an entrepreneur even if they bear no recognizable objective indicator of entrepreneurial action. I refer to the phenomenon of identifying as an entrepreneur without owning a business as “over-identified.” Using data from the National Longitudinal Youth Survey, which covers a period of 35 years, I test hypotheses of factors that will lead individuals to over-identify. Logistic regression reveals several factors including innovation-related activities and involvement in a family business, which significantly influence the likelihood for individuals to over-identify as entrepreneurs compared to the baseline definition. The paper makes several contributions to extant literature including advancing the cause of defining entrepreneurship and further integrating identity and entrepreneurship literature.