The creation of opportunity is an opportunity to create: Entrepreneurship as an outlet for the legacy motive
Section snippets
Defining legacy
We define legacy as an enduring meaning, connected to the identity of an individual actor, apparent in behaviors that are intended to have an impact after the actor is gone. This definition, which is rooted in work on intergenerational decision-making (e.g. Wade-Benzoni & Tost, 2009), is central to understanding the phenomenon of the legacy motive as it relates to entrepreneurship, and distinguishes our use of the term from research using the same word to examine phenomena that fall outside the
Legacy salience and entrepreneurship
Research on the legacy motive and entrepreneurship has existed largely in parallel, despite strong hints in both lines of research that the two are linked. Social psychologists studying generativity and symbolic immortality have often argued that the creation of new products and organizations could be an outlet for the desire to make a lasting impact (Erikson, 1968, Kotre, 1984, McAdams and De St. Aubin, 1992), but have tended to mention these links in passing, rather than developing theory
Entrepreneurship and legacy content
In light of this evidence of the importance of the legacy motive to entrepreneurs, why has this link gone unexplored for so long? One explanation may be that when entrepreneurs start new firms as a way to make a lasting impact, divergent preferences regarding the nature of the desired legacy engender differences in the choices that entrepreneurs make across the life of the venture. Social entrepreneurs may have different ideas about what an appropriate lasting impact is when compared with
Implications of legacy complexity at founding and exit
Having shown the importance of the legacy motive to entrepreneurs and laying out the different kinds of legacies that they may wish to leave, we turn now to the critical decisions entrepreneurs make throughout the life of their firms. We focus on how the legacy motive affects entrepreneurial decision making at founding and exit. Not only are these decision points critical to the ongoing viability of a new firm, but as noted above, the legacy motive is likely to be particularly salient at these
Discussion and conclusion
Our reason for starting this company wasn’t money. It wasn’t that we wanted to start a company and retire. We wanted to work for ourselves and create a great work environment, have fun, and if we can create something of lasting value, great. I’m not saying money doesn’t matter, but it’s not the most important thing. (Executive of acquired startup, from Graebner, 2009)
The above quote illustrates the enduring challenge of understanding founders’ motives, as well as the critical importance of
Conclusion
The persistence of entrepreneurs in the face of long odds, long hours, and more often than not, reduced financial compensation has led to a renewed interest in understanding the non-pecuniary sources of motivation for entrepreneurs. By expanding our understanding of the legacy motive to include not only the extent of the desire to make a lasting impact, but also the intended benefits and beneficiaries of that act, we provide a framework that explains both the link between the legacy motive and
References (124)
- et al.
Man’s search for meaning: The case of Legos
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
(2008) - et al.
Improvising firms: Bricolage, account giving and improvisational competencies in the founding process
Research Policy
(2003) Using founder status, age of firm, and company growth rate as the basis for distinguishing entrepreneurs form managers of smaller businesses
Journal of Business Venturing
(1995)- et al.
A tale of passion: New insights into entrepreneurship from a parenthood metaphor
Journal of Business Venturing
(2005) Entrepreneurial narrative and a science of the imagination
Journal of Business Venturing
(2007)- et al.
Terror management theory of self-esteem and cultural worldviews: Empirical assessments and conceptual refinements
Advances in Experimental Social Psychology
(1997) - et al.
Survival beyond succession? The contingent impact of founder succession on organizational failure
Journal of Business Venturing
(2004) - et al.
Metaphors and mental models: Sensemaking and sensegiving in innovative and entrepreneurial activities
Journal of Management
(1995) Generative outcome
Journal of Aging Studies
(1995)- et al.
The influence of sustainability orientation on entrepreneurial intentions—Investigating the role of business experience
Journal of Business Venturing
(2010)
Bad riddance or good rubbish? Ownership and not loss aversion causes the endowment effect
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
The IKEA effect: When labor leads to love
Journal of Consumer Psychology
Entrepreneurial motivation
Human Resource Management Review
Organizations evolving
Passing on privilege: Resources provided by self-employed parents to their self-employed children
Research in Social Stratification and Mobility
Discovery and creation: Alternative theories of entrepreneurial action
Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal
Entrepreneurship and epsitemology: The philosophical underpinnings of the study of entrepreneurial opportunities
Academy of Management Annals
Forming and exploiting opportunities: The implications of discovery and creation processes for entrepreneurial and organizational research
Organization Science
Social identity theory and the organization
Academy of Management Review
Creating something from nothing: Resource construction through entrepreneurial bricolage
Administrative Science Quarterly
Meanings of life
The relationship of entrepreneurial traits, skill, and motivation to subsequent venture growth
Journal of Applied Psychology
The denial of death
Escape from evil
Habits of the heart
Socioemotional wealth in family firms: Theoretical dimensions, assessment approaches, and agenda for future research
Family Business Review
Socioemotional wealth and corporate responses to institutional pressures: Do family-controlled firms pollute less?
Administrative Science Quarterly
Me or we: The effects of CEO organizational identification on agency costs
Academy of Management Journal
Intergenerationally gifted asset dispositions
Journal of Consumer Research
Where (who) are collectives in collectivism? Toward conceptual clarification of individualism and collectivism
Psychological Review
Who is this “we”? Levels of collective identity and self representations
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Organizational identity orientation: Forging a link between organizational identity and organizations’ relations with stakeholders
Administrative Science Quarterly
Finding a home for products we love: How buyer usage intent affects the pricing of used goods
Journal of Marketing
The call of the wild: Zookeepers, callings: and the double-edged sword of deeply meaningful work
Administrative Science Quarterly
Leaving a legacy: Position imprints and successor turnover in young firms
American Sociological Review
The nature and experience of entrepreneurial passion
Academy of Management Review
The gospel of wealth essays and other writings
Gender, entrepreneurship, and bank lending: The criteria and processes used by bank loan officers in assessing applications
Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice
Managerial legacies, entrenchment, and strategic inertia
The Journal of Finance
It’s all about me: Narcissistic chief executive officers and their effects on company strategy and performance
Administrative Science Quarterly
Let my people go surfing: The education of a reluctant businessman
The relationship of achievement motivation to entrepreneurial behavior: A meta-analysis
Human Performance
Beyond compare: Metaphor in organization theory
Academy of Management Review
Imagining and rationalizing opportunities: Inductive reasoning and the creation and justification of new ventures
Academy of Management Review
Family business research in the new millennium: An overview of the who, the where, the what, and the why
Family Business Review
Organizational images and member identification
Administrative Science Quarterly
Methodological fit in management field research
Academy of Management Review
Identity: Youth and crisis
Transcending death through organizational birth. Unpublished dissertation
Cited by (15)
Legacy motivations & the psychology of intergenerational decisions
2019, Current Opinion in PsychologyCitation Excerpt :Legacies have been defined as an enduring meaning attached to one's identity and manifested in the impact that one has on others beyond the temporal constraints of the lifespan [1••]. Rooted in the drive to make life meaningful and to continue existence on some level after death, legacy building can take diverse forms ranging from the purposeful selection of belongings and artifacts to pass along to future generations [8•] to creating entirely new organizations in more dramatic scenarios led by entrepreneurs [9•]. Acting on the behalf of future generations enables people to create a connection with an entity that will continue to exist after they are gone.
Legacy in Family Business: A Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Agenda
2024, Family Business ReviewThe Andrew Carnegie Effect: Legacy Motives Increase the Intergenerational Allocation of Wealth to Collective Causes
2024, Social Psychological and Personality ScienceCONTINUE THE STORY OR TURN THE PAGE? COWORKER REACTIONS TO INHERITING A LEGACY
2023, Academy of Management ReviewMapping women's involvement in family firms: A review based on bibliographic coupling analysis
2022, International Journal of Management Reviews