Research on the Formation and Influence Mechanism of Team Entrepreneurial Passion

Abstract

Team entrepreneurial passion（TEP）is defined as “the shared positive emotion on the basis of shared identity by new venture team members to effectively carry out entrepreneurial activities such as the founding and developing of new ventures and improve their performance”, which is the inexhaustible power for the new venture team to maintain entrepreneurial passion and forge ahead. Although more and more scholars gradually pay attention to team entrepreneurial passion, the research on team entrepreneurial passion is still in the initial stage. Therefore, team entrepreneurial passion has become a very cutting-edge and challenging research topic in the field of entrepreneurship. This paper is a constructive qualitative exploration research. By systematically reviewing the existing literature of team entrepreneurial passion, we explore the formation mechanism of team entrepreneurial passion and its influence mechanism. Firstly, we systematically review the literature about “team emotion”, “team identity” and team entrepreneurial passion, and the main viewpoints of team entrepreneurial passion are thoroughly sorted out. Secondly, we divide the emotion sharing and identity sharing process during the formation of team entrepreneurial passion into different entrepreneurial passion. The former includes four key sub-processes: individual positive emotion, emotion contagion, emotional convergence and shared emotion, while the latter includes four key sub-processes: individual identity, collective identity, entitativity and shared identity. Based on this, a bottom-up team entrepreneurial passion emergence model is constructed, which is of great theoretical significance to clearly deconstruct the formation mechanism of team entrepreneurial passion and further promote the empirical research on team entrepreneurial passion formation. It has certain practical significance for new ventures to help teams form effective and stable entrepreneurial passion through emotion and identity process. Finally, the overall research model of the top-down influencing mechanism of team entrepreneurial passion is constructed. This paper explores the mediating effect of team psychological empowerment, team process and team member entry and exit between team entrepreneurial passion and team performance, and studies the moderating effect of team vision in these three paths. The construction of this model responds to the research limitations and the calls for more research on the formation and the function of team entrepreneurial passion. And the model has important theoretical significance for further enriching and expanding the current research of team entrepreneurial passion. At the same time, a new venture team can use team entrepreneurial passion to influence the emotion and identity of individual team members, so as to choose team members more efficiently, which is of certain practical significance for achieving the dynamic stability of team size and team status, and improving team performance. The main conclusions of this study are as follows: First, although the research on team entrepreneurial passion can use the view of team passion for reference to some extent, there are essential differences between the two. Second, team emotional sharing and team identity sharing are two key processes for the formation of team entrepreneurial passion, and the process of team emotional sharing and identity sharing can promote and reinforce each other. Third, team entrepreneurial passion can affect team performance through team psychology, team behavior and team structure.