Art-identity founders, venturing processes and entrepreneurship: implications for policy

A growing body of literature in entrepreneurship argues that extant conceptualisations of the venture journey are not representative of the broad forms that entrepreneurship may take. This results in ill-informed policy which, in turn, feeds into support programmes that work for ventures with certain profiles but are unsuitable for many other forms of enterprise. In this paper, we seek to explore how this selective form of theorising and related policy intervention plays out in art-identity ventures, being those which defy commercial priorities and pursue creative practice. We engage in this debate with a view to framing the status quo from the perspective of the art-identity ventures, diagnosing the problems represented by this, and proposing some ways forward through which policy could resolve apparent tensions.