Aiming for legitimacy but perpetuating clichés – Social evaluations of the entrepreneurial identity

The positive evaluation by society of entrepreneurs as a social group is hugely important because it determines that group’s legitimacy. However, researchers have tended to neglect the role of society in social evaluations and also that constructing them is a multilevel process. This knowledge gap has prompted us to investigate how entrepreneurs are perceived and evaluated (1) from the societal perspective, (2) from the entrepreneurs’ own perspective on entrepreneurial identity, and (3) from the entrepreneurs’ perspective on society’s views on them. We contribute to the literature by proposing a model that connects entrepreneur identities and the social evaluations of entrepreneurs. The multilevel and cross-level analysis of the evaluations of entrepreneurs linked to the individual and social entrepreneur identities reveal inconsistencies and potential trade-offs. We base this analysis primarily on a sorting study of visual representations of entrepreneurs published in the media. Although the entrepreneurs perceive the entrepreneurial identity more positively and seriously than society in general, they do not construct visual representations to convey this positive identity to the public. Finally, the results underscore the usefulness of visual analyses in revealing stereotypes.