Abstract
This study examines how entrepreneurial identity influences product strategies and performance in craft ventures. Analyzing a large sample of entrepreneurs from Etsy, an online marketplace for handcraft products, we show that entrepreneurs’ personal experiences and values imprint on venture identity and lead to peculiar dynamics of business value creation. Specifically, craft ventures imprinted by the personal story of their founders offer a narrower range of items, sell lower volumes, and underprice their products. They also earn a higher reputation among customers, which implies an over-commitment to quality. These unusual dynamics emerge through entrepreneurs’ search for authenticity, reputation and audience. Imprinting of personal experiences and values has more influence on product strategies when entrepreneurs find meaning in and emphasize their commitment to the act of handmaking.