Epigenetic alteration: identity transformation of an iconic Soviet circus in post-Soviet Kazakhstan

Environmental disruptions such as geopolitical upheavals, war, deglobalization, and resurgent nationalism increasingly unsettle organizations and their identities. Existing research on organizational identity recognizes environmental complexity, overlooking ambiguous environmental conditions where dominant logics erode rapidly and substitutes remain underdeveloped or fragmented. How do organizations respond to identity threats in such ambiguous conditions? We conducted six years of ethnography at the Kazakh State Circus (KSC), an iconic Soviet cultural organization that became destabilized in post-Soviet Kazakhstan. Our inductive process theorization shows how organizational identity reconstruction unfolded through epigenetic alteration: a collective, negotiated, recursive process with options for reversibility. Four mechanisms – shared sensing of identity threats, collective rediscovery of sedimented meanings, negotiated weaving of identity careers and logics, and cautious reinforcing of emergent identity - enabled the circus to reconfigure identity elements, regain stakeholder support, and reposition itself as a Kazakh cultural entity. We contribute by theorizing epigenetic alteration as a process that reconstructs identity without rupture, which is stabilized through cautious reinforcing under continued environmental ambiguity.