Sensemaking by minority entrepreneurs: role identities and linguistic embeddedness

Language, as a form of contextual embeddedness, often defines how entrepreneurs enact their role identities, as well as restrict, or enable, the scope of their entrepreneurial activities. This study is an analysis of the role of linguistic embeddedness and role identities in the actions of two groups of minority entrepreneurs: immigrants and native minorities. This analysis was done by looking at the sensemaking of entrepreneurial activities, including venture creation and development. In-depth interviews with eight Russian immigrants in Finland and seven Swedish-speaking Finns were analyzed through metaphor analysis. The results show that immigrant entrepreneurs negotiate multiple role identities when realizing entrepreneurial activities and that, because of insufficient linguistic embeddedness in the host country’s context, native minority entrepreneurs face less complexity in enacting their role identities than their immigrant counterparts. This study contributes to the literature by focusing on the relatively underexplored interaction between the multiple role identities of an entrepreneur and organizational emergence and development. It also adds to the growing body of research on the role of language in entrepreneurship.