The link between nascent entrepreneurs' role identity aspirations and their opportunity exploration and exploitation activities

Although nascent entrepreneurs' opportunity exploration and exploitation activities are crucial for later venture evolution and performance, it is unclear why some nascent entrepreneurs engage more in these new venture creation activities than others. Building upon role identity theory, this study advances a nascent entrepreneur's various role identity aspirations as drivers of these activities. In particular, we argue that inventor, founder, and developer role identity aspirations are linked differently to the range of opportunity exploration and exploitation activities nascent entrepreneurs undertake. We use a two-stage Poisson model with sample selection correction on a random sample of 1582 inhabitants of Flanders, Belgium. The first stage estimates an individual's probability to engage in nascent entrepreneurship. The second stage tests the relationships between an individual's role identity aspirations and the range of exploration and exploitation activities undertaken, conditional on being a nascent entrepreneur, which holds for 162 individuals in our sample. We find that while some role identity aspirations are related to the range of opportunity exploration activities undertaken, others primarily affect the range of exploitation activities. Our findings have important implications for literature on new venture creation and entrepreneurial opportunities, for identity literature, and for nascent entrepreneurs wanting to start a venture.