Emotion in Entrepreneurship Education: Passion in the Practice of Artistic Entrepreneurship

Abstract

Although emotions have been recognized as fundamental for entrepreneurship and educational practices in general, the role of emotions in entrepreneurship education (EE) remain overlooked in entrepreneurship scholarship, particularly in the field of EE in the arts, where entrepreneurs are driven by their passion and strong emotional connections to their artistic projects. In this article, we discuss how emotion, and in particular passion, impacts entrepreneurship educational practices in the context of artistic entrepreneurship. Our 24-month inductive practice-based study, which used different sources of information (documents produced by the participants, direct observation, videos and semi-structured interviews) resulted in the identification of two dynamics of passion (transforming and contagious) and four tensions through which passion impacts EE (identifying/unidentifying, aggregating/disaggregating, driving/blocking and strengthening/weakening). We conclude that our results can enrich studies in EE from different paths: Discussing the relations between impacts of passion and other widely discussed constructs, broadening the understanding of passion as a dynamic and sociocultural emotion and highlighting the role of pedagogical practices in this context. Additionally, we broaden current understandings of the importance of passion for EE in the arts field. We emphasize that our study offers an opportunity for entrepreneurship researchers and educators to reflect on a more current and comprehensive educational practice, in which emotion is considered a fundamental and transformative dimension.