Abstract An increasing number of entrepreneurial ventures are growing at exponential rates despite their founders' professed intentions not to grow their firms. We refer to these individuals as artisan entrepreneurs. Through an inductive, phenomenon-based research approach, we explore how artisan entrepreneurs subscribe to a counter-institutional identity yet engage in a divergent set of behaviors. We discover that artisans' counter-institutional identity contains two sides—promoting the exclusion of ‘who we are not’ (oppositional identity) or providing support for ‘who we are’ (relational identity). We theorize that artisan entrepreneurs' differing views regarding their independence led to very different approaches to growth. When artisans either do not see forms of external control as impinging on their independence or sense that serving stakeholders is a means to perform relational identity work, they embrace growth. Thus, artisans may find that growth serves stakeholders, but funding growth brings about financial pressures, which may force the artisan down a path of growth.

中文翻译：

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工匠的困境：工匠创业与企业成长的挑战

摘要 尽管创始人声称不打算发展自己的公司，但越来越多的创业企业正在以指数速度增长。我们将这些人称为工匠企业家。通过归纳的、基于现象的研究方法，我们探索工匠企业家如何订阅反制度身份，同时参与一系列不同的行为。我们发现工匠的反制度身份包含两个方面——促进排除“我们不是”（对立身份）或支持“我们是谁”（关系身份）。我们的理论是，工匠企业家对其独立性的不同看法导致了非常不同的增长方式。当工匠要么不认为外部控制的形式影响他们的独立性，要么认为为利益相关者服务是执行关系身份工作的一种手段时，他们就会接受增长。因此，工匠可能会发现增长服务于利益相关者，但资金增长带来了财务压力，这可能会迫使工匠走上增长之路。