SHARED FATE AND ENTREPRENEURIAL COLLECTIVE ACTION IN THE EMERGENT U.S. WOOD PELLET MARKET

Although studies underscore the importance of creating a coherent collective identity in order to legitimate a new market category, research is divided on whether and to what degree entrepreneurs collaborate in the promotion of a collective identity. To reconcile the inconsistency, we explore boundary conditions for entrepreneurial collective action and focus on entrepreneurial shared fate as an underexplored key mechanism behind collective identity efforts. We test our theory in an empirical study of new-venture identity framing in response to forest conservation activism in the emergent U.S. wood pellet market. We propose that entrepreneurial shared fate develops differently according to the different scope of activist tactics that target individual ventures (firm-level) versus the broader market category (category-level), and thereby will influence venture identity framing.