Entrepreneurial Passion

General Introduction

There are many moments that are filled with despair and agony, when you have to fire people and cancel things and deal with very difficult situations . . . it’s so hard (to build a company) that if you don’t have a passion, you’ll give up.-Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc.

Passion—a word often reserved for romance and artistic work—is more prevalent than we

normally think. In the business world, nonromantic passion is closely tied to economic activities.

It is an important, albeit(although) rarely recognized, factor in resource allocation decisions

made by managers, investors, and consumers alike. To attract customers, producers of

consumer goods often express their passion for their products and what they can do for

consumers and society at large; for example, Starbucks emphasizes its passion for people and

its passion about creating a “third place” where people can relax and make connections, not

just get coffee (Kumar & Luo, 2006).

The passion displayed by entrepreneurs has been one of the most frequently observed

phenomena of the entrepreneurial process (smilor 199). Entrepreneurs have to sell their

venture plans to potential investors, potential employees, and major customers. In such

situations, passion is often critical to convince the targeted individuals to invest their money,

time, and effort in the new venture. In corporate settings, people championing new products

seek top management support and resources through powerful product presentations (Howell

& Boies, 2004). Passion is perhaps even more important in the nonprofit sector, where donors

often do not receive returns in terms of financial profits. In this case, promoters of such

ventures are required to make a compelling case for the causes they endorse. Thus, passion, as

an intangible, hard-to-measure quality of those asking for resources, can be powerful and

critical in many endeavors that are aimed at creating something new in society.

Passion is a strong indicator of how motivated an entrepreneur is in building a venture,

whether she/he is likely to continue pursuing goals when confronted with difficulties, how well

she/he articulates the vision to current and future employees, and whether she/he will be able

to influence, persuade, and lead people in growing the venture (cf. Vallerand et al., 2003).

Passion has long been recognized as a central component of entrepreneurial motivation and

success (Bird, 1988; Smilor 1997). While different researchers have used different and often

overlapping ways of conceptualizing the notion of passion, four aspects are common to most

research: passion 1) is wholly or partly a strong emotion that 2) encapsulates a host of different

and mixed emotions 3) is directed

Objectives of the presentation:

To throw light on the emotional side of entrepreneurship.

To give a brief on employees’ commitment towards entrepreneurship venture.

Definition of passion and entrepreneur

Broadly speaking entrepreneurs are those who “discover, exploit new products, new processes,

and new ways of organizing”(Baum and Locke, 2004:588). Although these pursuits can take

form, entrepreneurial efforts are generally defined in terms of the recognition and exploitation

of business opportunities, notably through the founding of the new ventures (Baron, 2008,

venkataram,1997).

Passion is often associated with “love,” be it love in romantic relationships, or in nonromantic

settings such as work. Social psychologists have treated passion as a motivational construct that

contains affective, cognitive, and behavioral components. For example, Vallerand et al. defined

passion as “a strong inclination toward an activity that people like [affective], that they find

important [cognitive], and in which they invest time and energy [behavioral]” (2003: 756).

Similarly, Perttula defined passion for one’s work as “a psychological state characterized by

intense positive emotional arousal, internal drive and full engagement with personally

meaningful work activities” (2003: 15). These two definitions suggest that passion helps direct

one’s attention and actions and that it is a domain-specific motivational construct. It is domain-

specific because one needs to have a target of love for passion, and this target is often a specific

activity or a collection of activities that embody certain implicit or explicit values.

In the entrepreneurship literature, attempts to define passion share a common emphasis on

affect, especially positive affect. For example, Baum and Locke called passion (for work) “love”

for work (2004: 588). Shane, Locke, and Collins called it a “selfish love of work” (2003: 268).

Smilor defined passion as the “enthusiasm, joy, and even zeal that come from the energetic and

unflagging pursuit of a worthy, challenging, and uplifting purpose” (1997: 342) and thus

effectively qualified it as an affective experience that accompanies actions laden with value.

Passion has been related to drive, tenacity, willingness to work long hours, courage, high levels

of initiative, and persistence in the face of obstacles (Bierly et al., 2000; Bird, 1989).

Why Passion?

Because without passion jumping out of an airplane at an altitude of 12000 feet

from the ground would be called suicide and not skydiving”

Introduction to Entrepreneurial Passion:

Chen et al (2009) define entrepreneurial passion as “an entrepreneur’s intense affective state

accompanied by cognitive and behavioral manifestations of high personal value”.

Entrepreneurial passion refers to “consciously accessible intense positive feelings experienced

by engagement in entrepreneurial activities associated with roles that are meaningful and

salient to the self-identity of the entrepreneur” (Cardon, Wincent, Singh, & Drnovsek, 2009, p.

517). Experiencing passion is typical of many successful entrepreneurs; it is the “fire of desire”

that drives their daily efforts (Cardon, Wincent et al., 2009, p. 515) and motivates them to

persist in the face of obstacles (Chen, Yao,& Kotha, 2009)

Elements of entrepreneurial passion:

Drawing from the work of Cardon and colleagues(2009, p 517) to define entrepreneurship as a

“consciously accessible, intense positive feelings experienced by engagement in entrepreneurial

activities associated with roles that are meaningful and salient to the self identity of the

entrepreneur”, the two important elements that compel further scrutiny is

1) Consciously Accessible, Intense Positive Feeling

2) Roles that are meaningful and salient to the self identity

1)Entrepreneurial Passion Is a Consciously Accessible, Intense Positive Feeling

The notion of passion has a long history, with early writings about its nature and importance

dating back to Greek and Western philosophers (e.g., Aristotle’s Rhetoric [Roberts, 1924]),

moral theologists (e.g., Spinoza’s Ethics [Della Rocca, 1996]), political scientists (e.g.,

Machiavelli’s The Prince [1984]), and cultural mythologies (e.g., Bhagavad Gita [Radhakrishnan,

1993]). While these writings differ on whether it impairs or empowers reason, most view

passion as any intense emotion that stirs humans with energy and deep longing to make a

difference. Social psychologists’ interest in studying passion is more recent and emphasizes its

conscious experience, motivational quality, and identity meaning.

Csikszentmihalyi (1990), for instance, suggests that passion promotes intense, flow like states of

total absorption in one’s activities. Vallerand and colleagues’ (2003) notion of passion is focused

on activities in which people invest time and energy and that they find important. Other

scholars argue that passion is activated by emotionally important goals that control and guide

desires, thoughts, plans, and behaviors and that persist over time, regardless of costs, external

obstacles, and moral objections (Frijda, 2005).

Across these definitions, passion invariably involves feelings that are hot, overpowering, and

suffused with desire. This fire of desire is referred to in virtually all writings on entrepreneurial

passion with words such as enthusiasm, zeal, and intense longing (Table 1). In the psychological

literature passion is conceived as energy that gives individuals a sense of “pleasure and

promise” (Rockwell, 2002: 52) and engages them “wholeheartedly with what . . [they] love”

(Belitz & Lundstrom, 1997: 57).

The scholarly view of passion is compatible with a feeling that is highly intense and positive,

similar to excitement, elation, and joy, but distinct from states that are negative and intense

(e.g., upset, stressed), states that are not at all intense (e.g., fatigued, calm), or states that are

positive but not intense (e.g., contented). As a feeling, passion involves consciously experienced

changes in core affect (i.e., internal affective state) that are attributed to external stimuli and

that are effortfully reflected upon and stored cognitively for later retrieval (Damasio, 2003;

Schwarz & Clore, 2007; see also the Appendix). Reflection might include self-awareness (“What

am I feeling physically?”), appraisals (“Why am I feeling this way?” “What caused this feeling?”),

and categorization (“How does it compare with other feelings?”). As a feeling, entrepreneurial

passion differs from episodic changes in core affect. While the latter is subconsciously or

unconsciously activated by external objects or activities that may be inert or irrelevant to an

individual’s identity meaning, passion involves “intense longing” that one feels for objects or

activities that are deeply meaningful to one’s identity, whether those objects are real,

remembered, desired, imagined, or anticipated.

Vallerand et al(2003), Entrepreneurial Passion is not conceived as a personality trait, but rather

an affective phenomenon that one may experience when engaging in or thinking about certain

activities. Passion thus consists of deeply experienced positive feelings for something important

to the entrepreneur and as a result, is more enduring than the experience of episodic emotions

associated with external stimuli(Wincent et al 2008). It means that the individuals may reflect

on the intensity of their feelings vis-à-vis different tasks and activities.

Entrepreneurial Passion Results from Engagement in Activities with Identity Meaning and

Salience

In our view, passion is aroused not because some entrepreneurs are inherently disposed to

such feelings but, rather, because they are engaged in something that relates to a meaningful

and salient self-identity for them. For example,

Baum and Locke (2004) and Shane, Locke, and Collins (2003) say that entrepreneurial passion is

a love of work; Smilor (1997) argues it is about enthusiasm for venture-related activities; Cardon

et al. (2005) say that passion is about love for the venture itself; and Vallerand and colleagues

define passion as a “strong inclination toward an activity that people like, that they find

important” (2003:757).

The concept of identity refers to internalized expectations that individuals have about the

characteristics they hold as central, distinctive and enduring and that are at least partially

reflected in the roles they enact (Burke and Reitzes 1991). As such, self-identity is often

comprised of many individual identities (Farmer et al., 2011; Murnieks, 2007). Stryker and

Burke (2000) argued that an individual’s identities are organized hierarchically, such that

identities are placed higher in the hierarchy are more salient and central to one’s central

identity than identities placed lower. In practice, these variations in identity lead entrepreneurs

to engage in those activities they identify closely with, and to disengage from those with which

they do not.

Although the overall role of “being an entrepreneur” may be the object of passion, (Murnieks,

2007; Murnieks et al, 2012), a more nuanced approach focuses on three distinct roles that

different entrepreneurs may experience differently, but are consistently found at the heart of

the entrepreneurial process:

(1) an inventor identity, where the entrepreneur’s passion is for activities involved in

identifying, inventing, and exploring new opportunities; (2) a founder identity, where the

entrepreneur’s passion is for activities involved in establishing a venture for commercializing

and exploiting opportunities; and (3) a developer identity, where the entrepreneur’s passion is

for activities related to nurturing, growing, and expanding the venture once it has been created.

Undeniably, some entrepreneurs may be equally passionate about all three of these identities,

whereas others may weigh one identity as significantly more meaningful to them.

Identity theory (Burke & Reitzes, 1981, 1991; Goffman, 1959), especially the literature focusing

on conceptions of identity rooted in the self (Stryker & Burke, 2000), provides the theoretical

logic for conceptualizing these three role identities. Here the focus is on the “active self” that

asks, “Who am I?” and on how this self knowledge motivates reflexive thought and self initiated

action to create, sustain, and change larger social and economic conditions to help one’s self-

growth and survival (Burke & Reitzes 1991). Researchers have defined identity as internalized

expectations about those characteristics individuals hold as central, distinctive, and enduring

about them and that are at least partially reflected in the roles they enact (Burke & Reitzes,

1991). For example, entrepreneurs who find self-meaning in the role of an inventor brimming

with market-disruption ideas are likely to view the inventor identity as a central, possibly

defining, and enduring characteristic about their self. Noting that the self is composed of

multifaceted identities, identity theory acknowledges that, for any individual, identities are

organized hierarchically such that an identity placed higher in the hierarchy is more salient and

more central to self-meaning than those placed lower (Stryker & Burke, 2000).

Therefore, some entrepreneurs may view a founder, rather than inventor, identity as more

salient and central, and, consequently, they may be committed more to the role of creating a

new venture than to that of exploring or inventing new opportunities. Indeed, over a lifetime,

an entrepreneur may change the salience of different role identities (e.g., founder may become

more central than inventor); however, at any given time, the relative importance of role

identities is stable, making an entrepreneur’s self-meaning temporally both distinctive and

coherent. This distinctive and salient role identity motivates entrepreneurs to engage in certain

activities (and disengage from others) and explains the affective experience that this

engagement invokes. In particular, identities are a source of motivation for actions that result in

social validation of self-meaning. Role identities put people in social categories (e.g., “I am an

inventor”), and individuals are motivated to maintain and confirm their self-meaning by

engaging in activities and interacting with people in ways that confirm the role expectations

and validate the behavioral implications of salient social categories (Burke & Reitzes, 1981,

1991; Goffman, 1959).Burke and Reitzes (1991) likened this to an active self that seeks

engagement in activities that confirm and disengagement from those activities that distract

from salient identities.

Entrepreneurs are often differentially passionate toward entrepreneurial activities. For

instance, entrepreneurs with a salient inventor identity, exemplified by Stephan Wozniak, are

aroused by passion when they engage in activities that involve seeking out new ideas, tinkering

with new product development, or scanning the environment for market-disruptive

opportunities. Alternatively, entrepreneurs who have the founder identity as most salient, such

as Wayne Huizenga, experience passion for activities that involve assembling the resources

necessary to create a firm, including financial (e.g., VC funding), human (e.g., employees), and

social (e.g., board members) capital. Finally, entrepreneurs whose self meaning is derived from

the developer identity, exemplified by Ray Kroc, experience passion when they engage in

activities related to market development (e.g., attracting new customers) and financial growth

(e.g., value creation and appropriation). It is not necessary that entrepreneurs have a single

identity that is hierarchically dominant.

However, when they do, entrepreneurs may disengage from activities relevant to other less

meaningful identities. For example, entrepreneurs may be so passionate about the inventor

role that they never actually take their products to the market or found the venture to exploit

the opportunity. Similarly, serial and portfolio entrepreneurs may be more passionate about

the founder role and willing to sell their firm to others who are more interested in growing the

venture to realize its full market potential. More generally, entrepreneurs may have multiple

identities that depict varying patterns and are organized in a hierarchy of more or less

importance, where none is clearly dominant or where some may be in conflict.

Burke (2006) has noted that multiple identities shift focus to internal organization of identities,

and to mechanisms by which the active self negotiates among different identities.

Consideration of multiple entrepreneurial role identities may help explain conditions that lead

to harmonious passion (e.g., when an entrepreneur can easily transition among salient role

identities) and to obsessive passion (e.g., when one role identity crowds out other identities).

Thus, it matters which specific role identity invokes passion for entrepreneurs, to what extent it

interferes in the fulfillment of roles related to other identities, and how an entrepreneur’s

active self manages multiple identities.

Validation of the concept

Building on relevant exemplars from this and other journals (Chandler et al., 2011; Lewis, 2003;

Shipp et al., 2009; Tang et al., 2012), we followed a three-stage procedure to assess our

instrument in terms of multiple dimensions of validity (Cook and Campbell, 1979; Scandura and

Williams, 2000). First, we drew from psychometric research (e.g., Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994)

to articulate our measurement strategy and develop theoretically consistent items. We then

conducted three pilot studies to fine tune our items and obtain preliminary evidence for our

measurement approach. Finally, we surveyed experienced entrepreneurs to examine the

structural, nomological and criterion validity of our instrument.

The validated items for measuring Entrepreneurial Passion's two dimensions (Intense Positive

Feelings and

Identity Centrality) across the three domains of inventing, founding, and developing.

Instructions, scale anchors, and items for EP's dimensions and domains--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Instructions: Please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with each statement--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ScaleAnchors 1=‘strongly disagree’; 2=‘disagree’; 3=‘neither agree nor disagree’; 4=‘agree’; 5=‘strongly agree’--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Domain and item #Validated item

IPF-inv1 It is exciting to figure out new ways to solve unmet market needs that can be commercialized.

IPF-inv2 Searching for new ideas for products/services to offer is enjoyable to me.IPF-inv3 I am motivated to figure out how to make existing products/services better.IPF-inv4 Scanning the environment for new opportunities really excites me.IC-inv1 Inventing new solutions to problems is an important part of who I am.

IPF-fnd1 Establishing a new company excites me.IPF-fnd2 Owning my own company energizes me.IPF-fnd3 Nurturing a new business through its emerging success is enjoyable.IC-fnd1 Being the founder of a business is an important part of who I am.IPF-dev1 I really like finding the right people to market my product/service to.IPF-dev2 Assembling the right people to work for my business is exciting.IPF-dev3 Pushing my employees and myself to make our company better motivates me.IC-dev1 Nurturing and growing companies is an important part of who I am.

Note. IPF = intense positive feelings; IC = identity centrality; inv = inventing; fnd = founding; and dev = developing.

Employee commitment to entrepreneurial ventures (Perceptions of entrepreneurial passion and Employees’ commitment to entrepreneurial ventures, Nicola Breugst and Team 2011)

As employee commitment is crucial for the success of entrepreneurial firms (Baron & Hannan,

2002), understanding how employees’ perceptions of entrepreneurial passion can influence

their commitment to new ventures is an important topic for entrepreneurship research. Since

entrepreneurs and employees are in frequent and direct contact with each other in most small

ventures, it is likely that entrepreneurs substantially impact employee motivation and behavior

(Ensley, Hmieleski, & Pearce, 2006). However, generating and preserving employee

commitment in entrepreneurial ventures is challenging since missing organizational legitimacy,

the lack of financial resources for paying high salaries, and the uncertainty about the venture’s

future development path often motivate employees to look for career options outside the

venture (Cardon, 2003; Cardon & Stevens, 2004).

In the study conducted by Dr Nicola Breugst and team, employees’ positive affect at work and

the clarity of their work goals mediate the relationship between perceived entrepreneurial

passion and commitment but in a different manner for different types of entrepreneurial

passion. Perceived passion can influence employees’ positive affect at work and their goal

clarity, which, in turn, trigger commitment. Importantly, these mechanisms explain why

perceived passion for inventing and developing positively impacts employee commitment,

whereas perceived passion for founding has a negative effect.

The study informs the leadership literature by showing that although leaders might display the

“same” affective, its influence on followers can differ depending on the context. Existing studies

(either implicitly or explicitly) suggest that leaders’ displays of positive affect is generally

contagious and evokes positive affective experiences in employees at work, which, in turn,

results in positive outcomes such as organizational citizenship behavior (Johnson, 2008) or

performance (George, 1995). For entrepreneurial passion, however, it appears that this

argument does not apply uniformly. Specifically, our data suggest that, employees’ perceptions

of entrepreneurs’ passion for founding new ventures—the “heart” of entrepreneurial activity—

can signal that the entrepreneur might leave the current venture once it is established to found

the next one, thus diminishing employee commitment to that venture.

Strong Emotional display

When engaging in activities for which they are passionate, entrepreneurs “show strong and

positive emotions toward their projects” (Chen et al., 2009, p. 203).Although entrepreneurs’

engagement in activities for which they are passionate will arouse their positive affect (Cardon,

Wincent, et al., 2009), “entrepreneurs who feel passion for their venture may also experience

shorter-term emotions that vary in intensity and valence. Hence, even if the activities for which

entrepreneurs are passionate may currently be difficult or painful and, therefore, arouse short-

term negative affect, passionate entrepreneurs are likely to display overall positive affect at

work because “[p]assion ensures that the entrepreneur persists in the face of difficulties and

keeps enthusiasm high during the pursuit” (Cardon, Zietsma, Saparito, Matherne, & Davis,

2005, p. 37)

Perceived Entrepreneurial Passion and Employees’ Positive Affect at

Work

Depending on the type of passion that employees perceive their supervisors to have, the

display of positive affect connected to entrepreneurial passion (Cardon, 2008; Chen et al., 2009)

can trigger concordant or discordant affective reactions.

First, entrepreneurs who are passionate about inventing show positive affect while identifying

and exploring new opportunities and developing new products and services. In young ventures

where marketable products still have to be developed and inventing is the venture’s key

activity, employees are often actively involved in the invention process (Katz, Aldrich,

Welbourne, & Williams, 2000). Indeed, research has found that many highly skilled inventors

tend to select themselves as employees into small firms (Zenger, 1994). This involvement allows

them to understand this type of entrepreneur’s perspective, decisions, and actions—that is, to

“put themselves in the shoes” of an entrepreneur who is passionate about inventing. These

employees will vicariously experience the entrepreneur’s affect through a concordant affective

reaction (Epstude & Mussweiler, entrepreneur’s affect through a concordant affective reaction

(Epstude & Mussweiler, 2009; Platow et al., 2005). Further, since developing new products and

services is essential for the venture’s future performance, employees working with these

passionate entrepreneurs will perceive that it is highly important for the entrepreneurs to make

the venture successful in the long run—an attitude that employees are likely to share given

their interest in job and income security (Monsen, Patzelt, & Saxton, 2010). Finally, in young

ventures, employees often indirectly or directly participate in the success of innovation efforts

(e.g., through stock options, profit sharing, and other performance based incentives, Cardon &

Stevens, 2004), which aligns their goals with the entrepreneur’s passionate inventing activities.

Thus, an entrepreneur who is passionate about inventing is likely to share perspectives,

attitudes, and goals with (the majority of ) his or her employees, which will trigger the

employees’ concordant affective reaction—that is, positive affect—when they perceive higher

levels of entrepreneurial passion for inventing (Epstude & Mussweiler; Platow et al.).

Second, entrepreneurs who are passionate for founding display positive affect during activities

related to the creation of a new firm, such as raising capital, finding the right location, and

expanding the founding team. These entrepreneurial activities are different from employees’

activities in entrepreneurial ventures and usually do not involve them (Katz et al., 2000). Thus,

employees are likely to have a limited understanding of the entrepreneur’s decisions and

actions related to these activities (e.g., why the entrepreneur spends so much time talking to

potential investors instead of developing the venture’s internal operations). Due to this limited

understanding, it is likely more difficult for employees to “put themselves into the

entrepreneur’s shoes,” which will limit their concordant affective reactions to the

entrepreneur’s displayed affect (Platow et al., 2005). Further, employees may interpret

entrepreneurs’ passion for such activities in such a way that they believe once the current

venture is sufficiently established (e.g., the seed capital is raised, the right location is found, and

the founding team is expanded), the entrepreneur will be motivated to engage in these

activities again and will move on to create the next firm instead of making the current venture

successful in the long run. Therefore, there appears to be a conflict between the entrepreneurs’

and employees’ goals and attitudes regarding the current venture’s future development in this

particular context. This is also likely to reduce concordant affective transfer (Platow et al.) or

even lead to a discordant affective reaction (e.g., employees worry about their future when

they believe that the entrepreneur will leave the firm after the start-up phase), thus resulting in

employees experiencing less positive affect at work.

Third, entrepreneurs experiencing passion for developing their current venture display positive

affect when engaging in activities like finding new customers, developing new markets, and

optimizing organizational processes—activities that are essential for making the company

successful in the long run. Employees are likely to understand the importance of these activities

because—like the entrepreneur—they have a vital interest in making the company successful in

the long run. This will better enable them to take the entrepreneur’s perspective. Further,

developing the venture often offers career opportunities for employees. For example, research

found that experienced employees often choose to work for entrepreneurial firms because they

value the superior career opportunities related to the growth potential of small firms (Leung,

2003). Hence, the entrepreneur’s interest in growing the firm is likely to be shared by the

employees. Employees’ perception of higher levels of passion for developing will thus indicate

to them that they are “in the same boat” with the entrepreneur. This feeling and the effect of

their common goals can be further enhanced when incentive systems allow employees to

participate in the venture’s future success, thus intensifying the concordant transfer of positive

affect (Platow et al., 2005; Sullins, 1991).

Variables

1. Affective Commitment

2. Perceived passion for inventing

3. Perceived passion for founding

4. Perceived passion for developing

5. Positive affect at work

6. Goal Clarity

7. Control variables – age, gender, tenure, education, venture age, no of employees.

Findings of the study

1. Perceived passion for inventing has a positive influence on employees’ positive affect at

work and, in turn, on employees’ affective commitment. Second, perceived passion for

founding has a negative influence on employees’ positive affect and an indirect

influence on their affective commitment. Third, perceived passion for developing has a

positive effect on the employees’ positive affect and goal clarity and thus has an indirect

positive effect on their commitment.

2. Employees’ positive affect at work is a more important mediator for the perceived

passion–commitment relationship than goal clarity (which mediates only the effect of

passion for developing). One reason for this finding might be that passion is mainly

affective in nature (Cardon,Wincent, et al., 2009), which also likely accounts for its

displays and employees’ perceptions of these displays.

3. Employees are likely to be more receptive to the entrepreneur’s passion for developing

than to his or her passion for inventing and founding.

Conclusion of the Presentation:

The success of Entrepreneurship is always been seen in terms of the, business plan, feasibility

of the venture, initial investment, market segmentation, resources, etc. But, the behavioral side

or the emotional side of the entrepreneurship is not much explored. Hence, I conclude my

presentation, with the note that entrepreneurial passion definitely has a major contribution in

the success of a venture.