The power of love: Four essays on the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and firm performance

Abstract

<p>In this dissertation, I present four essays to answer relevant questions on how entrepreneurial passion can influence firm performance. In the first essay, I conducted a systematic review on the topic of entrepreneurial passion and identified several research questions. To address research opportunities in the literature, I implemented three empirical studies to examine the impact of different types of entrepreneurial passion (obsessive, harmonious, developing, and inventing passion) on firm performance and investigated different mechanisms (identity fusion, bricolage, exploitation, and exploration) and boundary conditions (overwork and entrepreneurial autonomy) behind the entrepreneurial passion-firm performance relationships. Specifically, in the second essay, I studied how obsessively passionate entrepreneurs advance firm performance through identity fusion with their firms. In the third essay, I explored the impact of CEOs’ harmonious passion on firm performance through bricolage in the context of small- and medium-sized enterprises. In the fourth essay, I investigated the influence of developing and inventing passion on organizational innovation based on the identity theory.</p>