The Duality of Passion in Entrepreneurship

Abstract

This work is motivated by the desire to gain a deep understanding of affective experiences of entrepreneurs and their outcomes, in theory and practice. Specifically, the aim of this dissertation is to reframe the conceptualization of passion in entrepreneurship. It does so by uncovering the functioning mechanism through which passion exerts its influence in entrepreneurship as well as by considering the dualistic nature of the passion experience in entrepreneurship. As a whole, this work is guided by a general research question: does passion play a role in the new venture emergence process and if so, how does passion influence the new venture emergence process? The thesis addresses this question through a systematic literature review and three empirical studies. The systematic literature review (Paper I) updates the current state of passion research in entrepreneurship, uncovering thereby yet unanswered questions and research gaps, and thereby informing the following papers of this dissertation. The following three papers look at determinants that influence passion (Paper II) and at passion’s cognitive and motivational outcomes (Paper III and Paper IV). Methodologically, this work combines quantitative research (a longitudinal study and a quasi-experimental cross-sectional study) with mixed methods research designs such as qualitative comparative analysis (based on a cross-sectional study). As a whole, the four papers offer a better understanding of passion in nascent entrepreneurship. First, this dissertation demonstrates that passion can influence, but also be influenced by cognition, and clarifies the important two-way interactions between passion and cognition. Moreover, it furthers our understanding of the dynamic relations between affective and cognitive processes involved in new venture emergence. Second, in theoretically and empirically examining two new functions that passion fulfills in the entrepreneurial process—the emotion regulatory function and the decision-making logic coordination function—this dissertation offers additional and complementary explanations for the importance of passion for entrepreneurship. The current work goes over and above previous studies that looked at passion’s outcomes only considering its valence and offers more fine-grained explanations of the mechanisms through which passion exerts its influence on various critical entrepreneurial outcomes. Third, this dissertation extends the scholarly focus from only harmonious passion to both harmonious and obsessive passion, distinguishes the characteristics of these two forms of passion in entrepreneurship, investigates their development and demonstrates that they can have very different effects on the entrepreneurs’ affective, cognitive and motivational functioning. Therefore, it proves that considering passion in only one of its qualities will lead to an incomplete understanding of passion and its outcomes.