Entrepreneurial inception: The role of imprinting in entrepreneurial action

•We examine how foundational experiences ‘imprint’ entrepreneurs' decision-making.•We illustrate how different entrepreneurs draw from different spheres of influence.•We demonstrate how spheres of influence impact entrepreneurial identity.•The enduring influence of different spheres alters venture development trajectories.•Imprinting explains how entrepreneurs make decisions both now and in the future.

Recent research highlights that founders' early decisions and the environmental conditions at founding each imprint upon a new venture in ways that affect growth and survival. However, we know much less about how the entrepreneur is imprinted and how the outcome of this imprinting process influences the entrepreneur and the venture. Through semi-structured interviews and content analysis, our study examines entrepreneurs' formative experiences during sensitive periods of transition, which we refer to as sources of imprint. We illustrate how these sources of imprint impact entrepreneurial decision making and explain how they guide entrepreneurs' decisions as they progress through their entrepreneurial careers. In doing so, we improve our understanding of how entrepreneurs navigate the entrepreneurial process.