1 University of Amsterdam
Faculty of Economics and Business
Master Thesis
MSc. in Business Administration
Entrepreneurship and Management in Creative Industries
Managing role-identities: a case study of early design graduates
pursuing entrepreneurial ventures
Yuanyuan Fu 10621814
August 19th, 2016 (Final version) First supervisor: Jan de Groot
2 Statement of Originality
This document is written by Student Yuanyuan Fu who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document. I declare that the text and the work presented in this document is original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it. The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision of completion of the work, not for the contents.
3 Table of Contents Abstract ...4 1. Introduction ...5 2. Literature review ...8 2.1 Cultural entrepreneurs and Warring identities ... 9 2.1.1 Boundaryless career paths and cultural entrepreneurs ... 9 2.1.2 Warring identities ... 11 2.2 Identity Theory and identity management ... 12
2.2.1 Symbolic interactionist role theory and structure identity theory ... 12
2.2.2 Identity work and identity management ... 14 2.3 Artistic versus commercial role expectations ... 19 3. Research methodology ...22 3.1 Research design and strategy ... 23 3.2 Sample and data collection ... 24 3.3 Quality of the research ... 26 3.4 Method of analysis ... 28 4. Results ...28 4.1 Boundaryless career and multiple identities ... 29 4.2 Role conflicts and identity tensions when designers taking on roles as entrepreneurs ... 32 4.3 The strategies developed in managing multiple identities ... 35 4.3.1 Preserving artistic identities: avoidance strategies ... 36 4.3.2 Balancing artistic and entrepreneurial identities: differentiation strategies ... 38 4.3.3 Strengthening both artistic and entrepreneurial identities: integration strategies ... 40 5. Discussion ...43 5.1 Summary of findings ... 43 5.2 Discussion of findings ... 47 5.3 Implications ... 52 5.4 Limitations and recommendations for future research ... 53 6. Conclusion ...54 Bibliography: ...56 Appendices: ...60 Interview protocol ... 60 Coding tree ... Error! Bookmark not defined.
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Abstract
This paper aims to study what kind of identity tensions creative entrepreneurs are experiencing and how they resolve these identity tensions when assuming the role of both designer and entrepreneur. By conducting qualitative in-depth interviews with early design graduates who are pursuing entrepreneurial ventures in the Netherlands, I explore and identify the strategies which they deploy when managing multiple, potentially conflicting identities. The findings suggest that different strategies, namely avoidance, differentiation and integration strategies are present, which ultimately translate into the understanding of how creatives position themselves in both art and business world. More specifically, it seems that creatives deploy avoidance strategies in order to preserve their creative identity when their creative selves are at risk. Differentiation
strategies are mostly used to balance their creative selves and their entrepreneurial selves. Integration strategies refer to strategies that creatives developed to integrate their creative selves
and their entrepreneurial selves by synergizing the skills that are relevant to both worlds. As existing studies have largely neglected identity management and identity work at the individual level, this paper contributes to the theory by studying specifically those independent designers who are managing both entrepreneurial identities and creative identities.
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1. Introduction
In recent years, government policies have led to a considerably substantial reduction in governmental subsidies for arts and culture, resulting in a great reduction in permanent jobs and traditional jobs in cultural industries (Hausmann, 2010). For instance, in the Netherlands, according to Benschop (2014), over 20 percent of the subsidiary budget for arts had been cut and many cultural institutions disappeared in 2013. Globally, especially in Europe, artists, designers together with many other creative workers are highly encouraged to establish their own business. Because of various types of funding opportunities for entrepreneurs as well as a positive societal attitude towards entrepreneurship and innovation (Hausmann, 2010), there has been a rapid increase in cultural entrepreneurial ventures. In the U.K., the proportion of graduates who are working in business start-ups, self-employment and temporary work is increasing in compliance with the recent growth in the creative sectors (Ball, Pollard and Stanley, 2010). It is shown that 23% of the creative graduates who studied fine art and design were self-employed or freelancing and 18% were having a business, compared with 40% signaling an interest in starting their own business in the future (Ball et al., 2010). Among designers in the U.S., almost one-third are self-employed, a ratio that is nearly five times as large as for all other occupations and professions (United States Department of Labor, 2014). Essentially, being a cultural entrepreneur is about risk taking and the transfer of creativity into products and services which are marketable. It is about turning creativity and originality into a product or service that generates revenues (Tiyasuksawad, 2005).
The idea of cultural entrepreneurship is not new. Dimaggio (1991) points out that cultural entrepreneurial activities can be traced back to medieval Europe, emerging in various types of art
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productions such as craftsman’s guilds. In the contemporary cultural production, those traditionally patronized types of art work no longer hold the dominant position and other forms of art have been legitimatized. With commercialization of cultural products and boost of the creative economy, cultural entrepreneurship has been prevalent. With the increasing blurring of the boundaries between artists and entrepreneurs, having the business mindset does not prohibit an artist from being artistically viable (Horwitz, 2013). However, the relationship between artistic expression and economic gains has been notably disputable. Visual designers are undergoing enormous pressure in retaining artistic autonomy when working for powerful conglomerates whose primary goal is to build brand identities and images (Crane, 2009). She argues that for many young fashion designers and graphic designers, the artistic selves have become supplementary and subordinate to the economic selves. It is to say that in order to safeguard their jobs in the company and maintain an income, they compromise their artistic integrity to the commercial needs. This gives motives for young visual designers to pursue entrepreneurial ventures where they can express autonomy freely. However, Rand (2007, p.34) regards the designer as one who “needs all the support he can muster, for he is a unique but unenviable position. He seeks not only the applause of the connoisseur, but the approbation of the crowd.” Potter (1980) notes that designers especially need to reconcile many conflicting interests brought by the various parties that get involved. Besides acting as a creative worker, they inevitably undertake multiple responsibilities and roles to clients, collaborators, contractors, and the public (Potter, 1980). On one hand, entrepreneurial visual designers are expected to act commercially and economically, carrying out activities that help to meet clients’ needs, to approach new opportunities and to keep a good relationship with existing clients. The fact that they are in the early phase of their venture when
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their voice is not well heard and recognized makes it even more difficult to obtain necessary accreditation and resources. They face entrepreneurial-related challenges such as the stress of finding financing solutions and the need to effectively market and promote themselves. On the other hand, the initial reasons for which they started their ventures are due to their passion in art and the need to express autonomy (Gotsi, Andriopoulos, Lewis & Ingram, 2010).
Ashforth, Harrison and Corley (2008) suggest that an internal tension between the two opposing value orientations may result in identity tensions. Specifically, the structure identity theory (Stryker & Burke, 2000) gives valuable insights in understanding the role behaviors that are associated with particular role-identities. Stryker and Burke (2000) suggest that when individuals attempt to meet disparate expectations brought forward by varied roles, a divergence in self-identity may occur. As divergent value orientations and expectations are assumed by the roles of creatives and roles of entrepreneurs, cultural entrepreneurs may perceive an inconsistency in the understandings of the selves (Mead,1934) and experience identity tensions when taking on entrepreneurial ventures. This fact inevitably urges individuals to resolve the inconsistency in their self-perceptions relevant to the roles of entrepreneurs and designers. Therefore, the two-sided research question that is addressed in this paper is: 1) What kind of identity tensions do early
design graduates experience when assuming the role of both designer and entrepreneur and 2) how do they resolve these tensions?
Although the theory of identity work provides valuable insights in studying the identity management (Snow & Anderson, 1987), the literature that touches upon the area of professional identity management at an individual level and without the support of organizations has been
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rather limited. Lindgren and Wahlin (2001) urge the need for new theory concerning identity management in the absence of conventional work-life scenarios to deal with the emerging boundary-crossing career paths. Specifically, Tams and Arthur (2010) highlight the importance of career self-management and identity work in managing various career forms such as highly skilled contractors, project workers, contingent workers and entrepreneurs, which situate outside the traditional organizational settings. However, Murnieks and Mosakowski (2007) note that there has been a very limited amount of studies that apply identity theory to the realm of entrepreneurship. Besides very few studies focusing on creative workers’ identity work and identity management in organizations (e.g. Gotsi et al., Wei, 2012), self-employed creative workers and freelancers have been largely neglected. This fact urges the need to study the identity management of independent designers (i.e. individual or duo designers) in their entrepreneurial ventures. Therefore, I draw particular attention to early design graduates (including graphic designers, fashion designers, jewelry designers and interior designers) in this paper. By limiting entrepreneurial ventures to particularly the case of designers, I study independent designers who are self-employed and run their own websites or studios in an effort to establish their own names in creative industries, instead of working for big design studios or educational institutions.
2. Literature review
This section aims to build a solid theoretical base for understanding the role conflicts and the identity tensions that early design graduates are undergoing and how they resolve them. First of all, I start with discussing boundaryless career paths in the creative industries and warring identities. Secondly, I focus on role theory and identity theory, paying particular attention to
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role-identity theory. I highlight the study of organizational identity management as it is highly relevant in understanding how independent designers resolve their identity tensions. Further, in order to understand the underlying mindsets of creatives taking both designer and entrepreneurial roles, I discuss different views on the relationship between art and commerce. To close the section, I identify the gap in the existing research, followed by the research questions.
2.1 Cultural entrepreneurs and Warring identities
2.1.1 Boundaryless career paths and cultural entrepreneurs
As individuals are frequently moving across various organizations and professional roles, it is difficult to craft and maintain a coherent and integrative identity. Emerged in 1970s, the term “boundaryless career” is defined by DeFillippi and Arthur (1996, p.116) as ‘‘sequences of job opportunities that go beyond the boundaries of single employment settings.’’ Fueled by the need for flexibility and oversupply, labor markets in the cultural sectors are highly volatile and unstable (Menger, 1999). The boundaryless career is especially prevalent in the creative industry where movements between projects are frequent and a wide set of skills and knowledge is highly appreciated. In respect of designers, Vinodrai (2006) documents the careers of designers within the local labor market in Toronto, concluding that very few graphic designers in his study have been employed exclusively by design firms and the majority of them has had various career paths. He notes that due to the limited available openings in design studios, many young, formally-trained industrial designers are first involved in contract-based projects before starting their own practices. This finding is aligned with Rantisi’s (2002a, 2002b) studies of how fashion designers accumulate their experience and reputation by frequently taking part in different projects before establishing their own studios. Furthermore, Vinodrai (2006) concludes that a lot of designers
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were pushed into entrepreneurial ventures simply due to the lack of opportunities within their own fields.
Studies in the field of entrepreneurships essentially aim at understanding “how opportunities to bring into existence ‘future’ goods and services are discovered, created, and exploited, by whom, and with what consequences” (Venkataraman, 1997, p.120). Along the same line, the notion of “creative entrepreneurship” or “cultural entrepreneurship” is characterized by those talented and entrepreneurial individuals who manage to exploit the market opportunities and convert ideas into creative goods or services for society. In accordance with Rae (2005), what distinguishes cultural entrepreneurs from artists is that while artists care primarily about the production of art, cultural entrepreneurs are also concerned with the distribution of the cultural activities along the value chain. That is, cultural entrepreneurs are not satisfied with simply generating creative content, they also want to be involved in the process of marketing and exploiting the creative content they create (Bilton, 2008). Bilton (2008) notes that by interfering in the distribution and marketing of cultural products, cultural entrepreneurs are expected to undertake the role of connecting the antagonism between ‘creatives’ (i.e. designers) and ‘suits’ (i.e. entrepreneurs).
However, Raffo, Lovatt, Banks and O'Connor (2000) suggest that graduates in creative disciplines are relatively unprepared to take over the entrepreneurial role, often resulting in business failures. According to Ball et al. (2010), around 50% of creative graduates would like to have more understanding of customer needs and improved business skills. Self-confidence and self-management skills are considered to be the least developed skills, yet among the most important skills in the creative labor market. For designers, just like many other occupations, when
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it comes to running a business, most responsibilities and roles are inevitably taken by the founder himself.
2.1.2 Warring identities
On one hand, this provides individuals with considerable freedom and various opportunities to construct and develop multiple identities through ongoing interactions with the environment, occasions and settings. On the other hand, this also raises questions and poses obstacles for individuals to coordinate and reconcile their multiple identities which might have conflicting interests or orientations (Lindgren & Wahlin, 2001). Two main identities are embedded in the act of cultural entrepreneurship: namely the creative identity and the entrepreneurial identity. Therefore, identity is not considered to be one-dimensional any longer and instead, it is common that the cultural entrepreneur experiences a divergent sense of self (Collinson, 2003). While coexisting identities could mutually reinforce each other, they may trigger tensions if contradictory or incompatible experiences occur (Kreiner, Hollensbe & Sheep, 2006).
Identity tensions are likely to arise when the role of being an entrepreneur contradicts the role associated with the broader perception of oneself (Rizzo, House & Lirtzman, 1970). The conflict is manifested when the values and actions that make up the self-perceived identity greatly contradict the ones that make up the entrepreneurial role (Hoang & Gimeno, 2010). Hereby, the broader self-concept refers to the self-definitions built on attitudes, values and characteristics which make an individual different from others (Hitlin, 2003). In the case of cultural entrepreneurs, it is the novelty and the uniqueness in creating the symbolic meaning of their artistic work that define their creative identities, potentially large parts of their broader self-concepts. As for an entrepreneur, besides management and communication skills such as marketing, accounting
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and networking, risk management, coordination, innovation and arbitration are expected and needed by the role demands of entrepreneurs (Hausmann, 2010). According to Hall (1972), when one’s self-concept differs significantly from one’s entrepreneurial role, one may experience the stress from the identity tensions and have the need to reconcile and integrate different roles. On one hand, as creativity and artistic expression are essentially rooted in the work of designers, commercial needs may challenge and even compromise the initial artistic pursuit. On the other hand, cultural entrepreneurs especially run the risk of resource scarcity, financial shortage and the lack of legitimacy when reaching out to potential investors. Entrepreneurs’ career paths are made up of a wide range of choices and various professional role changes, transitions in roles often make up a significant part of individuals’ working lives (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996). However, it might be difficult to meet the expectations, manage new challenges and responsibilities brought by the entrepreneurial role, while still maintaining the creative identities when the transition in roles occurs (Sieber, 1974). Therefore, in the following section, identity theory and identity management theory are discussed in an effort to better understand the interplay of roles and identities as well as how identity tensions can be possibly resolved by identity work and identity management.
2.2 Identity Theory and identity management
2.2.1 Symbolic interactionist role theory and structure identity theory
Role theory provides critical cues in understanding how individuals behave in the ways that are predicted by specific situations and their social identities (Biddle, 1986). A role can be defined as a set of actions that one is expected to enact in a specifically defined situation (Friedman & Podolny, 1992). Those expectations define behaviors and influence an individual’s interpretation
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of roles (Graen, 1976). Biddle (1986) discusses five perspectives in role theory, among which the symbolic interactionist role theory is applied in this paper. This perspective discusses role behaviors in informal interactions, providing insights in role taking, self-identities and relationships among roles (Biddle, 1986). Specifically, this perspective examines how roles derive meaning and evolve when interacting with their counter roles held by one (Mead, 1934). This perspective later extends to structure identity theory (Stryker & Burke, 2000). Specifically, the structure identity theory assumes that one chooses and behaves in a certain manner that is matched with the value that the role stands for (Stryker & Burke, 2000). Structure identity theory focuses on role behaviors, which often require direct involvement and interaction with the counter roles one holds. Different from the identity concept derived from the social identity theory (Tajfel, 1978), a role-identity (Stryker, 1968) is the meaning of the self which is associated with a role (i.e. what you do) rather than a member of a social group (i.e. who you are) (Stets & Burke, 2000). For example, if one describes himself as an entrepreneur and this definition is recognized by others through the activities and behaviors he enacts, ‘entrepreneur’ can be regarded as (one of) his professional role-identities. As this paper aims to examine certain behaviors and actions which are associated with particular role expectations and role demands, the perspective of role-identity theory is brought forward.
Goffman (1978) proposes that the disrupted interaction among roles may lead to an inconsistency in the perception of the concept on one’s self, meaning a conflict between an individual’s external role demands and internalized perception of the self. Conflicting demands in roles may result from individuals’ disagreement on certain expectations (Goffman, 1978). The severity of such a conflict is critically decided by role-identity salience (McCall & Simmons,
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1966). According to Stryker and Serpe (1982), identity salience represents an important theoretical way in which multiple identities can be organized within one’s self. They define salience as the possibility of one identity being invoked in a particular situation. By saying this, the role-identity salience theory proposes that the more an identity is internalized into one’s self (compared with other potential counter role-identities), the greater the chance that a behavioral choice is enacted in order to live up to the commitment to that particular identity (Stryker & Burke, 2000). Stryker and Serpe (1982) discuss two factors which determined the position of a role in this role-identity salience hierarchy, namely the characteristic of the situation and the characteristic of the self (e.g. self-esteem, the satisfactory level). Highly salient roles are more likely to prevail and create conflicts when being challenged in negotiations and interactions with others (Stryker, 1968).
2.2.2 Identity work and identity management
Identities are embedded within the personal meanings which are constantly constructed and reconstructed by individuals (Karreman & Alvesson, 2004). According to Watson (2008), there are two types of identities, namely self-identities and social identities. Specifically, the self-identity refers to the persona that one considers himself to be, while social identities are the characters that other people attach to him. The notion was ingeniously explained by Cooley (1992) through his metaphor “the looking glass self”, meaning that the perception of one’s self or one’s identity is recognized and reflected in the eyes or perception of others through various interpersonal social interactions. Therefore, in terms of the entrepreneurial identity, it can be the case that someone is socially-identified as an entrepreneur, who is attached to the identity of the entrepreneur, without embracing and acknowledging the entrepreneurial identity himself. In
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Germany, Dangel and Piorkowsky (2006, in Hausmann, 2010) find that self-employed artists consider themselves solely artists, while being unwilling to call themselves entrepreneurs. Similar situations are evident in the cultural sector on a global scale according to Caves (2000), Menger (1999) and Howkins (2001). While these artists may deliberately seek opportunities to get funds and projects through various ways, they are reluctant to be identified and associated with entrepreneurial identities. Therefore, in order to understand why this is the case, it is important to learn how creative entrepreneurs frame their realities as well as how this framing affects their behaviors (Watson, 2009). Further, it is worth noticing that one is less likely to take for granted the image of himself solely based on the others’ perceptions (“the looking glass”). Instead, one actively involves himself in acts of “impression management” (Goffman, 1978), meaning how other people see himself and how one makes sense of the figure of himself in the eyes of the people he interacts with (Watson, 2009). This leads us to further study the notion of identity work and identity management.
As society and organizations are changing rapidly, both entrepreneurship and art require new understanding and meanings. However, the existing theory has touched upon identity management mostly at an organizational level. I draw on the conceptual and empirical research streams of sociology and organizational behavior concerning identity work and identity management. Thus, by leveraging the literature on organizational identity work, this paper identifies and explores how creative professionals resolve their identity tensions when pursuing entrepreneurial ventures.
A growing amount of literature addresses identity tensions brought by identity change and plurality as well as identity work. According to Snow and Anderson (1987), identity work
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refers to “the range of activities individuals engage in to create, present, and sustain personal identities that are congruent with and supportive of the self-concept”. For example, Hellstrom, Hellstrom, and Berglund (2002) find out that technological entrepreneurs consider themselves to be both entrepreneurs and innovators based on their social and subjective selves. Their perceived identities greatly influence and are influenced by their performed actions and activities. Watson (2008) considers organizations are particularly appropriate cases to study how people shape, manage, negotiate and work out the concept of self as they need to take on their corporate personas besides just the social identities they adopt outside work. Petriglieri and Petriglieri (2010) discuss that a “holding environment” is crucial in facilitating identity work by providing a workspace for individuals to make sense, elaborate and consolidate working experiences into meaningful selves. As Lefebvre (1991, p.26) argues, space is where individuals give meanings to their experiences and encounters, it is thus ‘not merely a “frame” or “container” for living experiences, but is rather a tool of thought and action’. As time and space provided in organizations display different resources, they become essential in the construction of identities.As a result, various studies have been focusing on managing multiple identities in organizations where institutions function as a “holding environment”.
Identity work has been evidently found to be more problematic nowadays than in the past due to a number of reasons. Particularly, Alvesson and Willmott (2002) note that identity problems appear to be prevalent, especially in the creative and knowledge-intensive organizations, posing paradoxical situations for creatives and managers. Through a case study of New Product Design (NPD) consultancies, Gotsi et al.,(2010) suggest that there are two ways of managing the identity tensions in an organization, namely through differentiation strategies and
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integration strategies. As these two strategies are expected to be present among independent
designers, they are elaborated in detail.
Differentiation strategies refer to separating identities by segregating corresponding roles in different times and spaces. Specifically, differentiation strategies leverage time and space in organizations to separate creative identities and business-oriented identities. Pratt et al., (2006) explain that identity differentiation implies separating disparate roles which underlie conflicting identities. Identity tension may arise from simultaneously holding disparate roles, thereby resulting in ambiguity in identity work. Therefore, differentiation strategies aim to preserve and maintain varied identities (Kuhn, 2006). Gotsi et al., (2010) suggests some strategies such as physical space for creative expression and personalized work space to maintain the creative identity while meeting rooms and war rooms designed for consultant identity. It is important to note that context sets boundaries and gives unique yet fluid and dynamic meanings to different situations by applying different organizational spaces and time (Halford & Leonard, 2006). By using the temporal differentiation and the spatial differentiation strategies in organizational settings, one is able to sufficiently switch between different identities. Thus, one identity can be avoided from being always salient to the other (Gotsi et al., 2010). In addition, he discusses that in order to differentiate identities, they switch roles within one project during different phases or they switch roles between projects accordingly.
In contrast, integration practices encourage the embracing of the conflicting identities as a synergistic and integrative meta-identity. By emphasizing on finding the interdependence between seemingly contradictory identities, conflicts in identities can be reconciled (Gotsi et al., 2010). Integration strategies seek to help individuals who wear both artist hats and consultant
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hats to incorporate disparate roles, thereby resolving their tensions. Integration strategies recognize the meta-identity of creatives working in design consultancies as ‘practical artists’. The strategies emphasize and support the reinforcing of the organizational norms and values that link the creative identity and the consultant identity by enacting tactics on hiring, mentoring and communications which enable synergies (Gotsi et al., 2010). It is important to note that as crucial parts of integration strategies, ongoing communications reinforce identity integration. By doing so, creative works are able to minimize their identity tensions and avoid destructive behaviors in the organizational settings.
According to Sveningsson and Alvesson (2003, p.1165), conscious identity work is “grounded in at least a minimal amount of self-doubt and self-openness, typically contingent upon a mix of psychological-existential worry and skepticism or inconsistencies faced in encounters with our images of them”. This means that one may find himself in the need for deliberately identity work in the face of crisis or collapse (Watson, 2009). For instance: when creatives are not prepared for the new role of an entrepreneur or find themselves needing to express autonomy in their entrepreneurial ventures but are unable to. Although identity work has drawn researchers’ attention mostly to the organizational context and the related managerial implications, how individuals resolve these identity tensions outside an organizational context is rarely discussed (Gotsi et al., 2010). According to Ashforth and Johnson (2001), potential role conflicts in organizations can be reduced by institutionalized socialization processes and symbolic management. However, when undertaking the founder role, entrepreneurs who are not in organizational structures are more likely to experience tensions in managing their entrepreneurial and creative identities (Hackley & Kover, 2007).
19 2.3 Artistic versus commercial role expectations
Having been extensively discussed in Section 2.1, role conflict is a result of conflicting expectations brought by various role undertakings. Expectations for a role do not present themselves independently, but rather develop and evolve with other interdependent expectations and behaviors that constitute the social system. According to Prahalad and Bettis (1986), the underlying mindsets or dominant logic of the social systems is reflected by those expectations and behaviors of a role. As artists and designers do not only need to secure a place in the cultural field but also make a living, there arises the need for the reconciliation of the artistic and the economic logics (Eikhof & Haunschild, 2007).
In order to understand how the artistic and the commercial role expectations as different reference pints influence early design graduates’ value propositions, the framework of Bourdieu is discussed in this paper. According to Bourdieu (1990), individuals are driven by different logics of practices, namely the artistic logic and the economic logic in the case of art production and consumption. Specifically, the economic logic is driven by a clear market orientation, which translates into individual benefiting or profiting from product markets, capital markets and labor markets through value exchange. Since the market value of goods and services is measured by their quantity as well as quality, the economic logic fosters market players to maximize the profit by achieving cost efficiency. Although intrinsic motives do exist, the extrinsic motives driven by market practice prevail (Bourdieu, 1990). On the contrary, the artistic logic is driven by the aspiration to produce art for art’s sake. According to the artistic logic of practice, art should be divergent from any moral, utilitarian or instrumental function. Instead, the artistic logic follows the intrinsic value of art, which embraces the aesthetics itself, as perceived by different recipients.
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Though market value does exist, the intention of producing art lies in contributing to a greater good which has its timelessness and enduring meanings (Bourdieu, 1990). However, since producing art is legitimized as a professional endeavor, the artistic practice is linked to different kinds of markets. With the commercialization of art, the economic logic is inevitably intertwined with the artistic logic. The amalgamation of two logics appears to influence the art labor market where artists and designers do not only need to make money for making more art but also for making a (better) living (Eikhof & Haunschild, 2007).
It inevitably leads us to consider whether art and commerce, namely the artistic and economic logics, are mutually exclusive or complementary. Management challenges in cultural organizations in the former perspective (mutually exclusive) lie in how to strategically choose between approaches driven by artistic considerations and economic considerations (Cillo &Verona, 2008). Wei (2012) considers that not only the less “industrialized” cultural industries, such as fine arts or handcrafts, but also those creative industries where products are aimed at mass consumption are jeopardized by financial restrictions and commercial needs, which can be greatly applied to the fashion and the design industries. As artistic production highly values creative individuals who dedicate themselves passionately to their work (Howkins, 2001), retain individuality, distinctiveness and integrity (Florida, 2002) and remain critical and independent (Scase &Davis, 2000), it also acknowledges the economic logic in its attempt to commercialize creativity. Nevertheless, it is considered that in an effort to rebel against the systematical management and to preserve artistic integrity, the creative individual runs the risk of undermining the organizational resources (Florida, 2002). However, the consensus of the latter perspective is that artistic value is embedded in the economic incentives (Taylor, 2012). Cowen and Tabarrok
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(2000) also state that a balanced combination of artistic integrity and monetary rewards are essential in managing the creative goods. Moreover, management challenges in creative organizations also result from continuous creations and emergences of new forms or genres of creative goods (DeFillippi, Grabher & Jones, 2007) and the ongoing categorization process of different cultural products and sectors (Gandia, 2013).
With regards to the former perspective of art and commerce as conflicting logics, Eikhof and Haunschild (2007) investigate how using these two distinct logics may exert an influence on creative production by studying the German theatrical employment system. They pinpoint that theatre artists have to continuously reconstruct and define their own positions within both the artistic practice and the business practice. To put it in other words, the ability to perceive and define oneself in a professional artistic occupation constitutes an ongoing realization towards one’s self-perception of being involved in artistic work. Therefore, according to Eikhof and Haunschild (2007), the conflicting logics between art and commerce are essentially the reflection of ones’ struggle in positioning and shaping their identities in the artistic field or business practice. Ellmeier (2003) considers that due to the structural changes in the production of cultural sectors, the well-acknowledged point of view that the artistic logic and the economic logic are two separate bodies no longer stands. Specifically, Ellmeier (2003) argues that the post-modern society has witnessed the shift from post-industrial economy to a cultural economy in conjunction with the process of economizing the cultural sector. On one hand, the highbrow art is getting popularized; on the other hand, culture has increasingly turned towards commodity production. In the presence of new technologies, artists are undergoing a constant change in shaping their image and identity (Ellmeier, 2003).
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To conclude, as real economic struggles and the entrepreneurial pursuit of the average designer place him into a paradoxical situation where conflicting roles of having both artistic orientation and business mindset need to be somehow reconciled or managed. To put it in other words, there is a black box concerning how creative entrepreneurs maneuver and manage their artistic selves and entrepreneurial selves at the same time. The literature review has examined the existing theories on role conflicts and identity work at an organizational level. However, despite the significance of these role conflicts and identity tensions, little is known about how creative entrepreneurs manage their multiple identities. Leveraging on identity theory and organizational identity work theory, some central themes such as “time” and “space” as well as theories such as differentiation and integration strategies are identified as applicable and valuable in studying individual entrepreneurs’ identity management (outside the organizational settings) when pursuing entrepreneurial ventures.
Thus, the research question is formulated as follows: 1) What kind of identity tensions do
early design graduates experience when assuming the role of both designer and entrepreneur and 2) how do they resolve these tensions? In an effort to gain a deeper understanding of cultural
entrepreneurs managing nascent ventures, this study aims to explore role conflicts and identity tensions experienced by creative entrepreneurs and the ways in which they resolve them. This paper provides critical insight in elaborating strategic decisions for those who are grappling with warring identities when pursuing entrepreneurial ventures.
3. Research methodology
In this section, I discuss the research methodology. First of all, I describe the research design and strategy. Second, I elaborate sample and data used in this paper, providing details on the data
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collection process and general information of the informants. Further, I address the quality of the research including the strength and the weakness of the research design. Lastly, I provide the method of analysis.
3.1 Research design and strategy
Given the fact that there is only limited literature on how cultural entrepreneurs especially how independent designers resolve their identity tensions when taking on the roles of entrepreneurs, a qualitative and inductive approach was adopted. The nature of this research is both exploratory and descriptive. Instead of experimental and survey research designs, a case study is suitable to use when studying the result of a dynamic and reflective process that contains frequent interactions with oneself and one’s surroundings (Lee, 1999). According to Saunders, Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2011, p.117), case study strategy is the most used in exploratory research because through asking the question of “why” and “how”, a detailed and deeper understanding of the subjects will be gained and the context within which the activity takes place will be considered. Therefore, a case study of early design graduates who are pursuing entrepreneurial ventures is an appropriate research methodology to use. Specifically, in order to examine the research question, a multiple case study of self-employed designers was conducted. According to Yin ( 2003), the logic of using a multiple case study lies in that it either predict a similar result (literal replication) or a contradict result (theoretical replication). In this study, literal replication was assumed and similar findings among fashion designers, graphic designers, jewelry designers and interior designers were expected. Primary data was used in this research. In order to gain a richer insight of the subject, semi-structured interviews were conducted and a set of open-ended questions with some variations were asked (Saunders et al., 2011, p.151). Each interview lasted
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approximately around one hour and was transcribed. The interviews were taken place in Amsterdam.
3.2 Sample and data collection
The population of the research consisted of all the early design graduates who are pursuing the entrepreneur ventures in the Netherlands, of which 13 were interviewed. The unit of analysis was individual designer. Interviews were collected from 13 visual design graduates (including graphic, fashion, jewelry and interior design) who are currently based in the Netherlands and graduated from Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Sandberg Institute, AMFI (Amsterdam Fashion Institute) and other art and design academies in Europe. The respondents are early design graduates (those who graduated from art academy within five years), self-employed, running their own practices in an effort to establish their own brands in design, culture or fashion fields instead of working for big design studios or educational institutions. However, considering the large amount of time, resources needed to be deployed and low feasibility in reaching out all the potential respondents (Saunders et al., 2009), non-probability sampling method was adopted to conduct the research instead of probability sampling. Specifically, purposive sampling was used because this research had specific predefined groups to study. Subjects were purposively identified and selected according to whether they have background in art or design and whether they are pursuing entrepreneurial ventures. Snowball sampling was used to select the sample from the population. More subjects were approached by the help of initial subjects who have more access to the pool of population as they are part of the creative community (Saunders et al., 2011). Some of the initial objects are friends and others were approached from informal occasions such as various art and cultural events held in Amsterdam. An overview of general
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background of informants can be found in Table 1. The average age of the informants is 28.3 years old. Four of them are male while nine are female. The distribution of their occupation is: one interior designer, one jewelry designer, three fashion designers and the others are engaged in mainly visual design (graphic design and illustration design). With an average of 2.6 years in practice, the average year since they graduated from art academy is 3.1 years. Seven out of 13 informants are Dutch while the remaining six are respectively Swedish (one), Chinese (two), Ukrainian (one), Mozambique (one) and Moldovan (one).
Table 1:
Informants Age Gender Nationalities Venture
(type + years in practice)
How many years since graduate; Education
A 26 Female Chinese One-woman studio providing
mainly visual design(mainly in graphic design), visual identity service (one year)
Less than one year (Sandberg Institute)
B 24 Female Moldovan One-woman studio providing
visual design, visual identity, art directing and photography (two years)
One year (KABK) Royal Academy of Art
C 30 Male Dutch One-man studio providing
visual design (mainly in graphic design, visual identity type of service (four years)
Five years HKU
(University of the Arts Utrecht)
D 29 Female Dutch One-woman studio providing
typography, book design and all other types of visual design (five years)
Five years
(Rietveld Academy)
E 27 Female Ukrainian One-woman studio providing
visual design, visual identity type of service (one years)
Less than one year (Rietveld Academy)
F 25 Female Dutch Initiated her own jewelry
label designed and made by herself (one year)
One year AMFI
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G 30 Male Swedish Two-man studio providing
visual design (mainly in graphic design, visual
identity type of service (three years)
Five years (The School of Design and Crafts at the University of Gothenburg)
H 31 Female Dutch Initiated her own studio and
fashion label (four years) Five years HKU(University of the Arts Utrecht)
I 31 Female Dutch Initiated her own fashion
label designed by herself (four years)
Five years AMFI
J 30 Male Dutch One-man studio for furniture
making and providing interior design, visual identity service (three years)
Four years (AMFI)
K 28 Female Dutch Two-woman studio provide
illustration design and visual identity (two years old)
three years
Willem de Kooning Academy
L 29 Female Chinese Initiated her own studio and
work on various visual design assignments under her name ( one year)
One year
Rietveld Academy
M 28 Male Mozambique Studio provide visual
design(mainly in graphic design), visual identity service (three year)
Four years
(Sandberg Institute)
3.3 Quality of the research
This quality of the paper was evaluated by four measures, namely conformability, credibility, transferability and dependability (Guba, 1981). Firstly, to ensure confirmability, an audit trail was conducted. According to Lincoln and Guba (1982), documents as raw data, interview and observational notes collected from the empirical research are preserved for the cross-checking. A detailed explanation and careful documentation concerning data collection and data analysis were provided to guarantee transparency.
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Next, in order to ensure credibility, respondents were selected based on two criteria: the present of their creative entrepreneur ventures and their relevant and valid art backgrounds. After the interviews, the transcripts were prepared to be sent to the corresponding interviewees so that the credibility of the data was ensured. In addition, prior to the interviews, conversations and observations were taken place in order to get a better understanding of the context of the background and to ensure the potential respondents’ fits for this study. This was to facilitate with the interpretation of the result. According to Guba (1981), the extended engagement and interaction in the formal and informal occasions improve the trust with interviewees, which appears to be essential for this study.
Then, to ensure transferability, thirteen interviews were conducted which served to address the research question. This to some extent increased the statistical generalizability in a case study, where a relative small sample size often becomes the reason for low generalization. However, since the research approach was qualitative and the size of the research sample was still considered to be relatively small, statistical generalization was not applicable in this research. As case studies can contribute to the theory development, analytical generalization is nevertheless allowed (Gilbert & Ruigrok, 2010). Particularly in this paper, methodology, result and discussion sections were presented in a detailed manner so that a comprehensive understanding towards research setting and data analysis can be obtained through rigorous argumentations based on a chain of evidence.
Last but not least, to ensure dependability, Peer examination/peer debriefing was conducted. Bitsch (2005) and Krefting (1991) note that with the help of peer debriefing, researcher is more honest to the study and it also contributes to the reflexive analysis. During this
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procedure, findings were discussed with colleagues who stood in a neutral position and were able to provide with advices and suggestions based on their experience on qualitative research.
3.4 Method of analysis
Interview transcripts were thoroughly examined to gain a profound understanding of interview respondents who are self-employed designers, running their own businesses or studios in an effort to establish their own brands. Since this study used both inductive and deductive approach, themes and concepts were derived and identified from both theory and primary data. Content analysis was used to analyze the interview transcripts. According to Neuendorf (2002), Content analysis includes coding and classifying which are also referred as categorizing and indexing respectively. It is aimed to make sense of the data collected and to address the critical insights, deliver message and highlight crucial findings. First, relevant themes were initially derived from theory. Coding was then used as an interpretive technique which organizes and segments the data which were gathered from the interviews (Yin, 2013). Within this stage, newly-emerged themes or categories were added to the data display. Then, in an effort to classify the data, I reduced the data set, summarized the codes and interpreted the data. Lastly, in order to present the result, illustrative quotes were included and organized. The findings were well elaborated and explained in results section.
4. Results
In the following section, I will firstly discuss how these informants perceive themselves when taking on entrepreneurial ventures. Then, in relation to their self-perceived identities, I will give an overview of various challenges, tensions and conflicts reported by the informants when they
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assumed the role of entrepreneurs. Lastly, I will elaborate on three strategies they deployed to manage their multiple identities.
4.1 Boundaryless career and multiple identities
It is interesting to find out that some informants associated themselves with multiple identities. As one of the informants reported:
“I see myself having many different identities. Besides a designer and an artist, I am also an event organizer, a curator and a project initiator. I think a mature designer or an artist should develop many abilities rather than be merely good at one thing.” (informant A)
Similarly, other informants acknowledged that they were multiple identity holders. Due to both high competitions in current labor markets and demanding skills needed for their entrepreneurial ventures, boundaryless career paths were reported to be prevalent among informants. Many of them worked not only as organizers who initiated the projects but also as contractors who took commissions from clients. Yet these identities cannot be isolated from their entrepreneurial ventures.
Notably, some informants do not recognize themselves as entrepreneurs. Despite the fact that many of them actively marketed themselves, sought opportunities and proactively involved themselves in business-oriented activities, they did not fully embrace their entrepreneurial or business identities. When asking informant M whether he defines himself as an entrepreneur, he responded: “Yes definitely, I mean I did not go after it, it just happened. The studio was born out of purpose, out of dreams, out of a collective intention. Then it starts growing.” While five informants explicitly defined themselves as entrepreneurs, some others were not entirely sure when asked if they consider themselves entrepreneurs. For instance, informant H commented:
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“I took the risk and sought the opportunities. In that sense, I consider myself an entrepreneur. But I am not very money-orientated. I mean I want to earn money out of my design, but I would say [earning] money is not my priority. [In addition], I think I need more [management] knowledge to run my studio [better], but more out of necessity.”
Informant L was struggling with fulfilling the responsibilities brought by the designer role and the entrepreneur role. She expressed the aspiration to be an entrepreneur:
“Actually I would love to [consider myself] an entrepreneur, I am trying to manage both. I mean it takes a lot of energy to find work. At the same time, you have to maintain a high level of output and quality of the work cannot be compromised.”
Nevertheless, many of informants did not associate the word “entrepreneur” with themselves at all while they were socially regarded as entrepreneurs. For example, according to informant G: “I do not identify myself as an entrepreneur, I [somehow] need the entrepreneurial part of things out of necessity more than anything else. I am only interested in doing design.” Likewise, as recalled by informants J: “I do not see myself as an entrepreneur but more as somebody who is looking for happiness…I think an entrepreneur is always looking for more [ways to earn money], I just want to do nice [work].” These informants associated entrepreneurs with monetary gain and profit seeking behaviors, while their happiness is attributed to creating and making art. Informant J later commented: “…if it is all about money then the job becomes [uninteresting]. I think this would never change.”
It is not surprising to note that all informants affirmed their creative identities. As informant H commented: “Making beautiful clothes that tells something about me has always been my biggest passion. Yes, I believe I am a good designer and I have been working hard to become a great designer.” Hereby, she clearly associated “making beautiful clothes” with her creative identity as a designer. In addition, informant L who defined herself both as a designer
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and as an artist later responded: “As a young creative, I am happy to have those kinds of artistic projects even without getting paid.” She clearly made her identity as a creative salient to other potential identities when having the artistic project. Thus, her primary orientation was to express and create as a creative (the artistic logics) without taking the financial compensation into consideration (the economic logics).
In short, these designers fully associated their current selves to the creative identity. However, when it comes to the entrepreneurial identity, the answers varied. Specifically, five of them explicitly defined themselves as (social) entrepreneurs. Three of them avoided being associated with the term whereas the rest looked up to the term and expected the future “self” to be an entrepreneur.
The results of their self-identities may be reflected in the motives of starting their ventures. As informant G responded: “I did not really find any of them (design studios) interesting and also the place that was able to hire me as an employee was not doing interesting [projects].” The majority of the informants claimed that they started their ventures because of their passion for art and the freedom in creating. In addition, the result might be reflected in the value propositions that they hold towards the relationship between art and commerce. When informant L was asked about whether the work would remain autonomous for her if she partnered up with business people or other creatives, she commented: “The difference between the two is that [If I work with] those business professionals, the conflict exists from the beginning. [However, if that is with] creative professionals, there should not be a conflict at the beginning [rather] in the process. It is because the [value] orientations are different [between two professionals]”. She held the opinion that the relationship between art and commerce are fundamentally conflicting. However, it
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is interesting to note that many informants who did not directly identify themselves as entrepreneurs actually believed that art and commerce are complementary to each other instead of being conflicting to each other. One of the informants commented:
“I like to be in this (economic) circle, I do not have this idealistic idea that art could force solving world problems. For me it's kind of being greedy, I would like to make the work that I like… at least to sustain oneself, for me it’s the motor, you can earn the money and with it you can buy new materials and make more [work]. The money that I make I do feed it back to my business.” (Informant D)
Clearly, having the positive view about art and commerce being complementary to each other does not necessarily make them fully define themselves as entrepreneurs.
4.2 Role conflicts and identity tensions when designers taking on roles as entrepreneurs
Most of informants confirmed and advocated the importance of business skills such as accountancy, marketing and finance in managing their entrepreneurial ventures. They reported the lack of efficiency and effectiveness in carrying out these activities. For example, when talking about the most difficult part of their ventures, informant I commented that it was mostly about: “Marketing and branding our names because we are not really business people. Who is [our brand]? What are we telling people? [How to] make it clear and stand out because of our story.”. At this point, informants reported inabilities of effectively preforming business activities such as self-branding and self-marketing. In addition, managing the financial part of their ventures appealed to be one of the most pronounced challenges. Entrepreneurial challenges such as looking for investment or funding opportunities were reported to be present. As one of the informants commented:
“Design is a process that I really enjoy, [however] what [can give me] a headache is when I have to look for clients or when I have to deal with monetary issue, like tax-related issues or balance sheets – or something like finding funding [opportunities] for the projects.” (Informant
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A).
Another money-associated challenge often experienced by informants was setting fair and suitable price offers for the commissions. As reported by informant B: “I think the beginning is quite hard [because] you are in this transition period between doing lots of free projects with students or with your friends and going to get clients [without] knowing which price to start with.” While some informants benefited from learning the pricing mechanism better through practice, some others were still struggling and avoiding discussing it. Besides, informants also considered skills related to public relations as their weaknesses and the fact that they have difficulties is a consequence of personal inabilities. One of the informants commented: “I am quite bad with PR. I really wish I could have professionals helping me in this matter.” Many informants reported that they are not very willing to be involved in the business activities. Their inabilities in business skills were often reported along with the unwillingness to get involved. For instance, informant H commented: “I do not like the business side of my venture like promoting my work, finding investors and so on. I mean I wish do not have to do it and that really demotivates me as part of the venture”.
Besides their unwillingness of being considered as an entrepreneur, informants reported that the conflict was caused by discrepant expectations of designers and clients regarding the deliverables of an assignment, which was associated with the entrepreneurial role. As recalled by informant C:
“[Those clients] never really refuse you and tell their opinions. They give very abstract and ambiguous requirement and feedback during the [process]. Then in the end, they say it is not how they wanted it… The work [has to be redone] from the beginning and I never get paid double.”
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Independent designers are usually paid based on the hours that are needed for the work. The initial discrepant expectations inevitably led to informant C negotiating a fair and better compensation for himself, which required him to enact entrepreneurial behaviors. Many informants felt like that they were being financially undercompensated. As they believed that they were pushed into the price negotiations that they did not intend to have, they were forced to enact the entrepreneurial role and behave economically. Likewise, some others reported that their roles as designers sometimes seemed to be undervalued and negatively affected by taking on the commercial projects. For instance, one of the informants commented:
“Every time I had fights with clients, there is no direct communication. [For example], now I got these emails at night and nobody dares to explain it, then it became a (fight) chaos…the thing is that the fights that happened were not about design but about the money or people [from client’s side] making mistakes…but nobody is fighting over the design…I am a designer so I can change things if I can understand the problem. I can find a solution but if you are fighting over other [things], I think I should not be part of it.” (Informant D)
In this case, the clients and the informant clearly had divergent expectations on the informant’s roles and responsibilities. While many informants did not expect to deal with the problems that caused by clients’ side, they were asked and expected by the clients to get involved in the non-design related problems and solve them.
Lastly, many respondents reported that tensions arose from not being able to express their artistic autonomy freely in the projects or disagreement on the artistic styles of the outputs with the clients. As informant A commented: “I did some design work for some clients who do not have a sense of aesthetics at all. [In those cases,] I had to lower my standard to ‘feed their appetite’.” Several informants reported situations in detail in which their artistic integrity was threatened by commercial needs. As Informant F recalled “[The client] asks me to make a necklace made out of red, yellow, green and everything combined…of course that is what she
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wants, but I would never wear it.” Similar problem was experienced by informant J: “[The client] sent me the code of color and I looked it up. [There was no way I would choose this color myself for the project]. The whole shop would be blue from outside to inside. When I was painting it, I [thought] this was horrible...” When these informants tried to provide clients with professional advice on design and aesthetics, their roles as designers were potentially at risk as the informants and their clients had discrepant expectations on the artistic styles of the outcomes. As these cultural entrepreneurs are striving to establish and sustain their own practices, they are expected to seek every opportunity which presents to them. Nevertheless, the contradicting expectations on roles led to them making decisions which might cause inconsistent perceptions of their self-identities. In attempts to reconcile warring identities and resolve the identity tensions, they developed three types of strategies.
4.3 The strategies developed in managing multiple identities
The analysis among entrepreneurial designers suggests that ongoing challenges and tensions were present, arising from maintaining the creative identity, developing the entrepreneurial identity and reconciling the two. In this section, I present a detailed overview of three strategies, namely avoidance, differentiation and integration strategies. These strategies were deployed by the informants who attempted to bridge the gap between the business work and the artistic work that are associated with two roles. In other cases, I describe how they preserved their artistic selves when running the risk of being compromised by entrepreneurial activities.
36 4.3.1 Preserving artistic identities: avoidance strategies
The avoidance strategies were used when these creatives were dealing with entrepreneurial and business related activities. Different avoidance strategies were developed and initiated by informants in maintaining, presenting and sustaining the creative identities to match with their selves. Specifically, some of the informants outsourced or shifted the business-related activities to other parties or to their partners. For example, when informant I was asked whether she was responsible for the business parts of her venture, she commented “I learnt that you should do what you are good at and I am good at starting a label. That’s why we commission other people to help us” However, the majority of the respondents was by themselves and they were not able to hire other personnel since because of the financial reasons. Therefore, some informants leveraged the resources they had, meaning they shifted some business activities such as the financial duties to their working partners (for those duo designers). As informant J mentioned: “My partner is going to take over 80% of [the financials], she will send out invoice and [everything else regarding the financials] because she is good [at dealing] with numbers.” Despite the fact that they claimed they were not good at it and this way was more efficient, it does raise the question of whether the shifting of these business-related responsibilities has anything to do with their desired perception of selves and identities. As one of the informants claimed:
“I am not a businessman, for me business and entrepreneurship are very different. I think entrepreneurship implies that you are working with people, there is a movement going on and you make something happen, [like] an initiative. I think I attach business and businessman to money directly, the capitalism driven purpose, economic value and market driven [approach]” (informant M).
Although informant M mentioned earlier that he considered himself an entrepreneur, he did not associate business with his venture. By framing himself as a social entrepreneur, he detached the
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profit seeking purpose from his entrepreneurial activities. This is considered to be one type of avoidance strategies that informants deployed to preserve their artistic identities. Similarly, one of the informants commented:
“Now I do not negotiate the price with clients anymore. I [would say to them]: ‘This is the price. If you want to negotiate the price, I am not the right person for this job.’ I always say if you decide to give me the job, I will make sure the end result is what you want and maybe even more. I stopped negotiating the price a year ago and it actually worked out.” (Informant J) By avoiding price negotiations with clients, Informant J was able to preserve his creative self. These avoidance strategies are considered to be a part of the identity work through which informants deliberately managed their impressions intended to be left on others. They sought to construct and maintain their creative identities in both perceptions of themselves and others by avoiding associating themselves with business-related matters.
The avoidance strategies were also found to be common for creative entrepreneurs when autonomy ran the risk of being compromised by the commercial needs. Two avoidance strategies were identified among creatives in order to preserve their creative identities. At least five respondents reported similar situations in which they rejected commissions that might constrain their artistic freedom. “I will never take projects that do not appeal to me at the first place.” Informant M reported that “I want to be picky about the commercial work that I do, not just accept everything because I need the money, but [rather] be selective.” (Informant G) In the meanwhile, if the conflict or disagreement happened in the process, some informants forgot about or stayed away from the work that they compromised their artistic freedom. For instance:
“If speaking [of] commercial projects, I would try to forget about the work that I do not like once I am done. At the first place I would [only] take on the jobs that are appealing to me, but if it happened in the process, I have to finish [the project] out of responsibility, I would just have to push it, leave it and leave.” (Informant B)
