Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: How do academic entrepreneurs deal with identity conflict?

Academic entrepreneurs are perpetually faced with an identity conflict. Drawing on concepts from social identity theory, we investigate the tension of duality between the academic identity and the entrepreneur identity. We contend that an indirect nonlinear relationship exists between social identity continuity and academic entrepreneurship performance through identity conflict, and that another indirect nonlinear relationship exists between experiences of multiple identities and academic entrepreneurship performance through identity conflict. We conducted an empirical survey of 246 academic entrepreneurs in China and found that our hypotheses were largely supported. Theoretically, our study offers new insights into the paradox of academic entrepreneurs and hybrid founder identities. Additionally, it also enriches the extant literature on identity conflict. Practically, our research not only offers helpful suggestions for academic entrepreneurs, but also has important implications for organizations supporting academic entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs with multiple identities.