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We explore whether and how the unfolding and contested nature of organizational identity can co-exist with successive layers of novelty imprints over time. Grounded in an in-depth case study of a multi-billion-dollar Chinese fund management firm, our analysis reveals how key figures can jointly shape organizational identity through leadership ideology, organizational structure and culture. We show three corresponding yet dissonant CEO practices and explain how leaders can create, blemish, or refine cognitive, structural, and cultural imprints. Our emergent theoretical framework explains the paradox of how identity continuity and novelty imprinting can co-exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]