Co(coa)Preneurship: The Persistence of Craft Ventures and the Power of Coupling

Many craft ventures operate under value rationality, privileging unconventional strategies predicated on personal, nonmarket goals, rather than economic rationality, which privileges profit and growth. This study investigates why craft businesses persist despite the inherent tension between economic needs and value-rational motives. We explore this question by turning to founders, the human element in craft organizing, in a mixed-methods study of the U.S. craft bean-to-bar chocolate field. The first study reveals that a high proportion of firms in our sample were founded by copreneurs, and that these ventures are more likely to stay in business than others. The second study, a qualitative analysis of interviews with founders, finds that craft provides space for copreneurs to design their organizations to integrate home and work lives, reinforcing craft values over economic concerns. Additionally, craft copreneurs experience greater consistency between family, home, and work values, which enhances motivation and resolution. We conclude that the interaction of craft and copreneurship generates value self-concordance, reinforcing founders’ commitment to value-rational goals and, in turn, engendering organizational persistence. Our findings offer insights for craft and entrepreneurship research by demonstrating the influence of value rationality on firm outcomes and highlighting the advantages of life partnership in entrepreneurial persistence.