Bend but don’t break: a case study on the cultural entrepreneurial process in the publishing industry

Research on cultural industries has attracted considerable interest on cultural entrepreneurs as agents in complex interaction with multiple and evolving contexts. The study aims to capture the complexity and intensity of these relationships, exploring entrepreneurship as a journey driven by cultural and social dynamics on one side, and economic needs on the other. The investigation is an inductive inquiry carried out through an in-depth analysis of a single revelatory case in the publishing industry. Focusing on the relational process through which the entrepreneur and the context are co-created, the paper analyzes the entrepreneurial journey through the identification of three major stages: Divergence, Identity construction, and Institutionalization.