Anchors of entrepreneurial careers – expanding an understanding beyond firm-founding

Purpose Entrepreneurial careers have mainly been defined by engagement in firm-founding. This understanding not only excludes intrapreneurship but also lacks insights into what individual motivations and values lie behind people choosing entrepreneurial careers over a longer time. This study applies Schein’s career anchors to increase the understanding of entrepreneurial careers, including then how they are distinguishable from nonentrepreneurial careers. Design/methodology/approach In-depth interviews covering ten or more years of career were conducted with 55 graduates from a master-level program in entrepreneurship and business design at a technical university, thereby emulating Schein’s 1970s original anchor study of MBA graduates from MIT. Findings Anchors were associated with 41 entrepreneurial and 14 nonentrepreneurial careers. Entrepreneurial careers were much more often attributed to anchor dyads as compared with nonentrepreneurial careers attributed to single anchors. The General management anchor was the only prevalent anchor for both types of careers, but with a more team-oriented and interpersonal focus for entrepreneurial than nonentrepreneurial careers, resulting in a suggested anchor split. Practical implications Implications are made for entrepreneurship policy and higher education. Originality/value Studying entrepreneurial and nonentrepreneurial careers through identifying dyads of career anchors is new, allowing both career theory expansion and generation of hypotheses.