his paper extends the entrepreneurial work design literature by examining the process by which cofounders, as relational work designers, design their work in new ventures. Our qualitative study reveals that cofounders’ work design processes vary in terms of their cofounder-cofounder relational identity or their sense of self resulting from their awareness of and reflection on the question of “who I am as one of the cofounders.” Our proposed theoretical model and our findings have clear implications for entrepreneurs in regard to both work design and identity.
