Somebody That I Used to Know: The Immediate and Long-Term Effects of Social Identity in Post-disaster Business Communiti
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Somebody That I Used to Know: The Immediate and Long-Term Effects of Social Identity in Post-disaster Business Communities Jenni Dinger1 · Michael Conger2 · David Hekman3 · Carla Bustamante4 Received: 15 May 2018 / Accepted: 18 February 2019 © Springer Nature B.V. 2019
Abstract The frequency and severity of natural disasters and extreme weather events are increasing, taking a dramatic economic and relational toll on the communities they strike. Given the critical role that entrepreneurship plays in a community’s viability, it is necessary to understand how small business owners respond to these events and move forward over time. This study explores the long-term dynamics and trajectory of individuals within the broader business community following a natural disaster, paying particular attention to the influence of social identity. Results suggest that the community identity changes over the course of recovery and rebuilding, underscoring the need for a holistic approach so that intervening agencies can achieve the sustainable economic recovery desired. Keywords Entrepreneurship · Natural disaster · Crises · Social identity · Community
Introduction Following a natural disaster, entrepreneurs are often quick to equate their own resolve to the community as a whole, becoming visible champions in campaigns to keep “Houston Strong” or proclaim “I am Joplin” (Dinger et al. 2012). Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04131-w) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Jenni Dinger [email protected] Michael Conger [email protected] David Hekman [email protected] Carla Bustamante [email protected] 1
Management and Entrepreneurship, Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University, 73 Tremont Street, Office 7055, Boston, MA 02108, USA
2
Institute for Entrepreneurship, Farmer School of Business, Miami University, Oxford, USA
3
Management and Entrepreneurship, Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA
4
Management and Entrepreneurship, Universidad Adolfo Ibanez, Santiago, Chile
Indeed, early work in this context suggests that entrepreneurs’ intentions and actions in the wake of disaster are often shaped by social capital and their sense of attachment to the focal community (Chamlee-Wright and Storr 2009a, b; Grube and Storr 2018; Storr et al. 2017). Interestingly, these declarations of solidarity are often made long before the entrepreneur can possibly know the likelihood of their own or their community’s success. This is especially true in places like the USA where disaster recovery is typically provided through a patchwork of federal, state, philanthropic, and private actors and varies greatly between communities depending on economic, political, and social conditions at the time. As a result, it is rarely a given that a business destroyed in a natural disaster will be restarted as a matter of course. For all of these reasons, identifying and pursui
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