Table Of ContentEdited by
Enrico Baraldi · Simone Guercini · Marcus Lindahl
Andrea Perna
Passion and
Entrepreneurship
Contemporary
Perspectives and New
Avenues for Research
Passion and Entrepreneurship
Enrico Baraldi
Simone Guercini
Marcus Lindahl • Andrea Perna
Editors
Passion and
Entrepreneurship
Contemporary Perspectives
and New Avenues for Research
Editors
Enrico Baraldi Simone Guercini
Department of Civil and Industrial Department of Economics and
Engineering Management
Uppsala University University of Florence
Uppsala, Sweden Florence, Italy
Marcus Lindahl Andrea Perna
Department of Civil and Industrial Department of Civil and Industrial
Engineering Engineering
Uppsala University Uppsala University
Uppsala, Sweden Uppsala, Sweden
Department of Management
Università Politecnica delle Marche
Ancona, Italy
ISBN 978-3-030-47932-9 ISBN 978-3-030-47933-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47933-6
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Preface
This book is the result of a collaboration that brought together a group of
scholars interested in the relationship between passion and entrepreneur-
ship according to several potential paths and viewpoints. It was October
2016 when during a meeting in Uppsala, Sweden, the anthology’s editors
started talking about the project and decided to organize a first workshop
in Florence, which would be followed by others in Uppsala and Milan. This
volume is the result of this process, whose details are provided in Chap. 1.
The book contributes on the link between passion and entrepreneur-
ship, introducing new perspectives on this topic. We started from the
idea that entrepreneurship was not just based on the search for profit.
Instead, entrepreneurial experience incorporates more complex processes,
often based on less rational behavior motivated by reasons other than
revenue. “Passion” refers both to emotional elements that may fuel an
entrepreneurial effort and to something that feeds the business. The link
between passion and entrepreneurship is certainly a complex one, visible
in the realm of practice and increasingly investigated in scholarship as
well. Due to this complexity there is no unitary view of how passion and
entrepreneurship relate with each other but, as any entrepreneur would
know the world and thrive upon, a bricolage to be picked and assembled
according to will and opportunity. As we have seen during this joint
research process, there are variants and flavors both of passion and of
entrepreneurship.
v
vi Preface
An overarching aim of this project, the workshops, discussions and
eventually this selection of texts that constitute this book, has been to
question any simplistic relationship between passion and entrepreneur-
ship whereby the former is positively related with and the basis for the
latter. Passion is a source of experimentation; it motivates actions taken
in conditions of uncertainty, and it is a fact that can therefore support
learning. Passion can have a positive effect on most entrepreneurial
activities, as psychological fuel either enabling entrepreneurs to pursue
their dreams or making them push forth despite hardship. Some of the
book’s chapters show how passion can be a motivating factor for the
formation of skills and relationships, and this represents an “asset”.
Other chapters highlight that passion can have “dark sides” and cause
non-rational behavior. Irrationality is not per se always negative. People
can run businesses for reasons other than profit, and passion can explain
this. This is a complex issue which can result in both positive and nega-
tive outcomes, depending also on several other intervening factors.
There is a need to be both theoretically and empirically careful when
investigating these constellations of passion and entrepreneurship. While
positive combinations are important, it is also necessary to assess critically
the pro-passion bias of entrepreneurship studies, which may risk diluting
the very idea of the linkage passion-entrepreneurship. An important
negative facet of this linkage is that passion can also make the actor
“blind” with respect to lessons that can derive from experience, reiterating
behaviors that may have led to negative outcomes.
Passion focuses on domain rather than performance. While such a
focus can create endurance for initiatives stretching over the long term, it
can also destroy resources if they remained tied for too long to economi-
cally unsustainable initiatives. Instead of enabling, passion can stand in
the way of actual success or, even worse, it may prolong business ideas
which should have been terminated long ago. As noted in the introduction,
passion, entrepreneurship and business performance are three clearly
different concepts. The case studies and literature analyses in the book
stress that passion is not only an emotionally heightened state of the
entrepreneurs but an important construct that shapes entrepreneurial
identity. To be an entrepreneur suggests having passion. But how the
single entrepreneur relates with passion is very idiosyncratic and can
result in very different combinations.
Preface vii
While investigating this complex and emerging topic we also rethink
the definition of passion and its function for entrepreneurs. The volume
discusses also the main theoretical and practical implications of the con-
nection between passion and entrepreneurship for businesses, from the
individual to the community level. The single chapters include case stud-
ies from multiple sectors, alongside conceptual frameworks, that we hope
can be of interest for scholars working on entrepreneurship as well as for
practitioners and policymakers.
One of the key messages of the book concerns the transitions in the
connections between passion and entrepreneurship that a single entrepre-
neur may experience. In their relation with passion, entrepreneurs may
go through a metamorphosis, from committed user to emotional busi-
ness developer, from individual to collective efforts or from aspiring
something to acting to get it. Transitions and the unfolding of time raise
some intriguing questions: is passion sustainable? Is passionate entrepre-
neurship sustainable? Can it be? Is it even desirable?
Finally, we would like to thank all coauthors and the universities that
hosted the workshops and supported our research. From our part, we can
certainly say that the book enterprise has been passionate, and we hope
that the reading will be too.
Uppsala, Sweden Enrico Baraldi
Florence, Italy Simone Guercini
Uppsala, Sweden Marcus Lindahl
Ancona, Italy Andrea Perna
Contents
1 Introducing and Framing the Connections Between
Passion and Entrepreneurship 1
Enrico Baraldi, Simone Guercini, Marcus Lindahl, and
Andrea Perna
2 Discovering Passion Through Entrepreneurial Stories:
Emerging Features from Content Analysis 29
Silvia Ranfagni, Andrea Runfola, Matilde Milanesi, and
Simone Guercini
3 The Role of Passion(s) in Entrepreneurial Team Evolution 55
Francesco Petrucci, Alessandro Pagano, and Roberta Bocconcelli
4 Beyond “Entrepreneurial Passion”: Are There Other
“Deeper” Forms of Passion Involved in Entrepreneurial
Pursuits? 83
Enrico Baraldi, Marcus Lindahl, Andrea Perna, and
Andrea Sabatini
ix
x Contents
5 ‘It’s Not Fair!’: Game and Affective Communities of
Entrepreneurship 113
Laura Mitchell and Saara L. Taalas
6 Passion, Expert Knowledge, and Community
Entrepreneurship 137
Christian Lechner
7 Exploring the Role of Entrepreneurial Passion in
Combining Social and Business Goals: The OTS Benefit
Company 169
Chiara Cantù
8 “Follow Your Passion”: Passion and Resilience in the
Surfing Industry—The Entrepreneurial Case of Roberto
Ricci Designs 195
Francesco Capone
9 Conclusions: Implications and Further Research Avenues
for the Connection Between Passion and Entrepreneurship 217
Enrico Baraldi, Simone Guercini, Marcus Lindahl, and
Andrea Perna
Index 231
Notes on Contributors
Enrico Baraldi is Professor of Industrial Engineering and Management
at Uppsala University, Sweden. His research covers industrial networks,
product development, innovation management, business strategies, sci-
ence & technology studies (STS), academic entrepreneurship and indus-
trial and research policy. He is also involved in identifying, developing
and promoting solutions to address the challenge of antibiotic resistance.
Roberta Bocconcelli is Associate Professor of Business Marketing in the
Department of Economics, Society, and Politics at the University of
Urbino Carlo Bo, Italy. Her research interests are mainly in business net-
works and in entrepreneurship and new venture development.
Chiara Cantù is Associate Professor of Marketing at Catholic University
of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy. Her main topics of research and her
publications relate to business network, relational proximity, marketing
innovation and entrepreneurial innovation network.
Francesco Capone PhD, is Senior Assistant Professor of Management
in the Department of Economics and Management, University of
Florence, Italy. He teaches business strategy and a laboratory on innova-
tion and new products development. He is member of the DELoS
(Development Economics and Local Systems) Doctorate Program,
University of Trento and Florence. His research interests deal with inno-
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