Finalist for the OMT Division Best Environmental and Social Practices Paper Award
New professional roles pose a challenge for identity construction as they lack preexisting identity templates and are often confronted with conflicting expectations. While previous research has examined the construction and adaptation of role identities through various forms of identity work, most of this research has focused on established professional or work settings. Thus, there is only limited understanding of identity construction in nascent settings where professionals employ identity resources from pre-existing settings to construct novel role identities. This paper investigates the construction of professional role identities in the emerging impact investing field in the Nordics. Based on the analysis of 64 interviews as well as archival materials, the paper finds that individuals entering the field construct their impact investor identities around the problematization of adjoining practices they have experience with from the past. This problematization both motivates and shapes their engagement with impact investing and influences the way in which they use varied discursive resources for identity construction. By describing four distinct approaches to identity construction, the paper also shows how role identities inform different ways of defining and prioritizing impact in role enactment.
