Research has shown founders' identities have a significant impact on their ventures. Yet, the process through which founder identity evolves and takes shape remains relatively unexplained. This paper explores the evolution of founder identity through a qualitative study of first-time sustainable entrepreneurs, and their stakeholders, over a three years period. Our analysis revealed the importance of personal identity, the aspect of the self that defines a person as a unique individual based largely on values and beliefs. We found that first-time founders sought to align their personal identity with their evolving founder identity over time. Based on these findings we theorize a process model of founder authenticity work, defined as the activities founders engage in to feel and seem authentic while engaged in entrepreneurial action. This study thus details the significance of personal identity as a guidepost for founder identity evolution, complementing extant founder identity studies focused on role and social identities. In addition, our analysis enriches the current conceptualization of authenticity in entrepreneurship research by linking it to validation of personal identity and highlighting its negotiated nature in the evolution of authentic founder identities.

研究表明，创始人的身份对其企业有重大影响。然而，创始人身份演变和形成的过程仍然相对无法解释。本文通过对首次可持续创业者及其利益相关者三年时间的定性研究，探讨了创始人身份的演变。我们的分析揭示了个人身份的重要性，即主要基于价值观和信仰将一个人定义为独特个体的自我方面。我们发现，随着时间的推移，首次创业的创始人试图将他们的个人身份与他们不断发展的创始人身份保持一致。基于这些发现，我们将创始人真实性工作的过程模型理论化，定义为创始人在从事创业活动时所从事的活动是为了让他们感觉并看起来是真实的。因此，这项研究详细说明了个人身份作为创始人身份演变路标的重要性，补充了现有的创始人身份研究，重点是角色和社会身份。此外，我们的分析通过将其与个人身份的验证联系起来，并突出其在真实创始人身份演变中的协商性质，丰富了当前创业研究中真实性的概念化。