Personal Mission Drift: Exploring Purpose in Life in Entrepreneurial Venturing

Abstract

Purpose in life is considered one of the most central components of entrepreneurial well-being and one of the most powerful driving forces of human behavior. Entrepreneurship researchers, however, have been slow to acknowledge the role of this meaningful construct in the entrepreneurship literature. Accordingly, this study sets forth a theoretical framework that explains the relationship between purpose in life and entrepreneurial action. We explain that purpose in life is not only a driver of entrepreneurial action but also a conducive means of cultivating purpose in life. Drawing on theoretical insights from psychology research, we explain how the entrepreneurial process naturally cultivates the four building blocks of purpose in life, which include commitment, personal meaningfulness, goal-directedness, and beyond-the-self. We propose that whether entrepreneurship cultivates purpose in life for individuals depends upon the degree of coherence between the entrepreneurs’ intended social purposes (ISP) for engaging in entrepreneurship and the activities and outcomes of the venture over time. When in coherence, entrepreneurship can be a powerful, self-reinforcing mechanism for sustaining purpose in life, which can have significant psychological benefits for the entrepreneur. For entrepreneurs that fail to maintain such coherence, however, the ventures may lock into previously unintended paths that gradually erode the psychological health and well-being of the entrepreneur. It is in this vein that entrepreneurship is a double-edged sword, protecting purpose in life for those that can retain coherence and impairing purpose in life for those that do not.