Entrepreneurial passion and a firm’s innovation strategies

How life context affects entrepreneurs' passion and performance

This article examines the influence of the life context on entrepreneurial passion (EP) and performance. Drawing on the person–environment fit theory, we developed a model showing how the life context fit affects EP in the domains of founding, inventing, and developing and how this translates into performance. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling, we tested our hypotheses using a sample of 406 entrepreneurs from the cultural and creative industries. Due to the presence of unobserved heterogeneity in the overall sample, we conducted prediction-oriented segmentation, which revealed four segments in which life contexts exhibit not only positive but also adverse effects on EP. Our results showed that, in contrast to the extant literature, EP generates its overall effect on performance at the intersection of positively and negatively acting domains of founding, inventing, and developing. To explain the structural relations between the four segments, we conducted qualitative post hoc analyses to evaluate idiosyncratic data on passion and the life context and aligned our insights with the extant literature delineating four categories of entrepreneurs from the cultural and creative industries: artepreneurs, culturepreneurs, creative entrepreneurs, and lifestyle entrepreneurs. Our findings contribute to overcoming the dichotomy between passion as a personality trait and a dynamic construct and to understanding passion as an individual phenomenon with multiple sources that interacts with the proximal environment and that can impact entrepreneurial performance both positively and negatively. We extend the entrepreneurship and psychology literature, facilitating people's abilities to lead more entrepreneurial and passionate lives.

Impact of different types of entrepreneurial alertness on entrepreneurial opportunities identification

In the context of resource constraints, how different dimensions of entrepreneurial alertness affect the entrepreneurial opportunity recognition of new ventures is an important issue worth studying. From entrepreneurial cognition theory and bricolage theory perspectives, we systematically investigate the intrinsic relationships among entrepreneurial alertness, entrepreneurial bricolage, entrepreneurial passion, and entrepreneurial opportunity recognition. Further, it explored the intrinsic mechanism of role in exploring entrepreneurial opportunity recognition. This study applied stepwise regression analyses and the Bootstrap method to test the hypotheses on a sample of 295 questionnaires of the new venture. The findings revealed that entrepreneurial alertness is positively related to entrepreneurial opportunity recognition. Entrepreneurial bricolage is positively related to entrepreneurial opportunity recognition. Entrepreneurial bricolage partially mediates between entrepreneurial alertness and entrepreneurial opportunity recognition. Entrepreneurial passion positively moderates the relationship between entrepreneurial bricolage and entrepreneurial opportunity identification. The study guides new ventures to enhance entrepreneurial alertness and reasonably use entrepreneurial bricolage to explore entrepreneurial opportunities.

Longitudinal research on the dynamics and internal mechanism of female entrepreneurs’ passion

Based on Vallerand’s dualistic model of passion, this study theorizes and empirically examines the temporal dynamics of two types of entrepreneurial passion in female entrepreneurs, harmonious entrepreneurial passion (HmEP) and obsessive entrepreneurial passion (ObEP), and examines the mechanisms by which entrepreneurial effort0 and fear of failure influence the temporal dynamics of entrepreneurial passion. Using data collected from a three-wave, lagged survey of female entrepreneurs, we employed Mplus to build a latent growth model for entrepreneurial passion and built a cross-lag model of the relationship between entrepreneurial passion, entrepreneurial effort, and fear of failure. We found that female entrepreneurs’ HmEP and ObEP present different temporal dynamics. Furthermore, the temporal dynamics of HmEP are achieved through changes in entrepreneurial effort, whereas the temporal dynamics of ObEP are achieved through changes in current entrepreneurial effort and fear of failure in the next stage. Therefore, due to traditional gender stereotypes and varying motivations to engage in entrepreneurship, the two entrepreneurial passions have different dynamic evolution processes. Our results underscore the importance of effort and fear of failure in stimulating the dynamics of female entrepreneurial passion.

Fire spreading across boundaries: The positive spillover of entrepreneurial passion to family and community domains

Passion plays a crucial role in entrepreneurial activity, while its positive spillover to the family and community domains is scant. We proposed an integrated enrichment framework of “work-family-community” based on the literature in the field. Drawing upon the matching samples of entrepreneurs' individuals, families, and communities in the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS) database, we identified a significant positive spillover effect into the family and community domains and explored the moderating role of the entrepreneur's perceived personal control. The empirical results indicate that entrepreneurs with higher passion experience higher subjective wellbeing related to family members and have a higher likelihood of engagement in prosocial behaviors. Perceived personal control positively moderates the spillover of passion to life and economic satisfaction. The spread of an entrepreneurial role model's peer effect and the contagion of entrepreneurial passion have a significant positive impact on entrepreneurial behavior in a cluster. Synthesizing our findings, we contribute to the literature concerning work-family enrichment, entrepreneurial passion, and the spillover-crossover model and offer important implications for entrepreneurs' role transition tension.