Seminar, Center for Management Science (CGS) – see invitation

Professor Nelson Phillips, Imperial College London

Building entrepreneurial tie portfolios through strategic homophily: the role of narrative identity work in venture creation and early growth

Wednesday October 5th 2011
3.00 – 4.30 pm
Room M209
Mines ParisTech
60, boulevard Saint Michel, 75006 Paris

Nelson Phillips will present the results of a case study of an entrepreneur who successfully founded and grew a venture underpinned by a portfolio of strongly homophilous, dyadic ties. He will discuss how the entrepreneur strategically constructed these ties through a form of narrative identity work, explore the shared identity narratives that he used to do so, and highlight the heterogeneous nature of the resulting tie portfolio. He will further explore the factors that motivated the entrepreneur to purposefully construct an entrepreneurial tie portfolio in this way. Building on these findings, he will discuss the nature of narrative identity work and its role in creating homophilous ties, explore the connection between the resulting shared identity narratives and trust, and discuss the central role of values in strategic homophily.

Please sign up with Eva Boxenbaum, eva.boxenbaum@mines-paristech.fr. Full paper available.