Illustrative data and coding structure: antecedents, DOS conversion routines, and outcomes
| Illustrative data excerpt (ID) | First-order open code (informant-near) | Second-order theme | Aggregate dimension |
|---|---|---|---|
| “People doubted me because of my background” (I19) | Prejudice/doubt due to background | Founder-level disadvantage | Antecedents /Triggering |
| “There were no mentors or emotional support; I had to figure everything out alone” (I7) | No mentorship or emotional backing | ||
| “I had no savings, no investors, and worked from a borrowed desk” (I4) | Starting from material scarcity | ||
| “I had to teach myself everything from scratch, no teacher, no formal learning, just trial and error” (I24) | No formal learning | ||
| “If I waited for others to believe in me, I'd still be waiting” (I2) | Acting from inner conviction | Dispositional activation and resourcefulness | |
| “Every time an order failed, I showed up again the next day” (I8) | Keep showing up after failure | ||
| “I believe outcomes depend on how much effort I put in” (I3) | Outcomes tied to my effort | ||
| “Having less made me more inventive” (I5) | Scarcity breeds workaround | ||
| “Being ignored pushed me to rely on myself” (I11) | Exclusion to self-reliance | ||
| “Hardship sharpened my determination” (I10) | Hardship strengthens resolve | ||
| “I wanted to prove that people like me can succeed” (I9) | Proving worth despite stigma | Motivational engine (approach and avoidance) | |
| “I aim to keep improving and mastering my craft” (I15) | Keep mastering the craft | ||
| “Recognition from others drives me” (I17) | Recognition as fuel | ||
| “The fear of going broke keeps me alert” (I12) | Loss-aversion vigilance | ||
| “I can't let my family go through that instability again” (I24) | Protect household from instability | ||
| “I stay cautious because I know how easily things can collapse” (I5) | Caution from collapse memory | ||
| “Fear holds me back, ambition pulls me forward” (I5) | Fear–desire co-activation | ||
| “That mix of fear and desire keeps me working.” (I18) | Fear and desire sustain effort | ||
| “Whenever I feel drained, I remember past rejections — they fuel me again” (I15) | Recalling rejection as fuel | ||
| “Remembering the worst days keeps me working harder” (I10) | Hardship memory to effort | ||
| “When things went wrong, I quickly adjusted and tried again” (I6) | Quick adjustment after setback | Affordable-loss probes (bounded probes) | Conversion routines (DOS) |
| “When supplies ran out, I reused leftover materials” (I4) | Improvising with leftovers | ||
| “It's better to act with uncertainty than to stand still” (I3) | Bias toward action under uncertainty | ||
| “My first order came in […] It felt like I'd earned a million! I can still remember that joy. [Then] when we completed our first 1,000 orders, that day felt like a dream.” (I3) | First-order and cumulative-order milestones | Readouts (money, legitimacy and learning) | |
| “After launching my Instagram page, something incredible happened: within my first 10–12 posts, I reached 200,000 followers. I hadn't expected [that kind of] visibility.” (I13) | Legitimacy readout (visibility/reach) | ||
| “Every new incident became a new clause in our customer contracts. Nothing was instant; it all came through learning.” (I23) | Clause update | ||
| “Every quarter, it's an inflection point. And that is not boring. Constantly evolving into doing other things.” (I18) | Quarterly review as an inflection point | Threshold updates and timed prevention–to–promotion switch | |
| “Now we know where to make it. Now it's easier than before. Hopefully, it will increase day by day.” (I1) | Timed switch after evidence | ||
| “Finally, I could pay debts and stabilize the company” (I18) | Debts paid; stability restored | Entrepreneurial self-realization | Outcomes |
| “Income growth allowed me to expand and employ others” (I18) | Growth enabled expansion/hiring | ||
| “A failed order led to a new overseas client” (I5) | Failure opened new channel | ||
| “I see myself as someone who builds rather than waits” (I1) | Identity as proactive creator | ||
| “Being invited to mentor others made me feel included” (I17) | Recognition and belonging |
| Illustrative data excerpt (ID) | First-order open code (informant-near) | Second-order theme | Aggregate dimension |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prejudice/doubt due to background | Founder-level disadvantage | Antecedents /Triggering | |
| No mentorship or emotional backing | |||
| Starting from material scarcity | |||
| No formal learning | |||
| Acting from inner conviction | Dispositional activation and resourcefulness | ||
| Keep showing up after failure | |||
| Outcomes tied to my effort | |||
| Scarcity breeds workaround | |||
| Exclusion to self-reliance | |||
| Hardship strengthens resolve | |||
| Proving worth despite stigma | Motivational engine (approach and avoidance) | ||
| Keep mastering the craft | |||
| Recognition as fuel | |||
| Loss-aversion vigilance | |||
| Protect household from instability | |||
| Caution from collapse memory | |||
| Fear–desire co-activation | |||
| Fear and desire sustain effort | |||
| Recalling rejection as fuel | |||
| Hardship memory to effort | |||
| Quick adjustment after setback | Affordable-loss probes (bounded probes) | Conversion routines (DOS) | |
| Improvising with leftovers | |||
| Bias toward action under uncertainty | |||
| First-order and cumulative-order milestones | Readouts (money, legitimacy and learning) | ||
| Legitimacy readout (visibility/reach) | |||
| Clause update | |||
| Quarterly review as an inflection point | Threshold updates and timed prevention–to–promotion switch | ||
| Timed switch after evidence | |||
| Debts paid; stability restored | Entrepreneurial self-realization | Outcomes | |
| Growth enabled expansion/hiring | |||
| Failure opened new channel | |||
| Identity as proactive creator | |||
| Recognition and belonging |
Note(s): First-order codes are informant-near paraphrases anchored in the quoted excerpt; second-order themes are researcher-centric concepts aligned to the DOS model (Figure 1); aggregate dimensions organize themes into Antecedents/Triggering Conditions, DOS Conversion Routines, and Outcomes. Controls and Breakdown Modes are depicted in Table 3. The theme Founder-level disadvantage records how baseline disadvantage, the sensitizing and sampling construct defined in Sections 1 and 3.1, surfaced in informants' accounts
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