Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate creativity as an intermediate variable existing within the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and entrepreneurial alertness. Design/methodology/approach – This is a quantitative research using a moderated mediation model. A questionnaire is used and the analyses are performed with the answers from 244 people with at least 3 years of professional experience and graduate business studies. The discriminant validity of the variables is revised and a hierarchical regression analysis is performed for the hypotheses test. Findings – Significant relations are obtained with which a positive relationship between entrepreneurial passion and creativity can be confirmed, as well as a positive relationship between creativity and entrepreneurial alertness. However, the results also reported that creativity partially mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and entrepreneurial alertness. Originality/value – The contribution of this research lies on showing empirical evidence of the link between entrepreneurial passion, creativity, and entrepreneurial alertness through the use of measurement scales recently developed. It also presents creativity as an intermediate variable in the entrepreneurial passion-alertness relationship.
Highlights
Identifying entrepreneurial opportunities has been a key topic in the field of entrepreneurship (Busenitz, Plummer, Klotz, Shahzad, & Rhoads, 2014; Short, Ketchen, Shook, & Ireland, 2010), and its study has been linked to abilities and capabilities at an individual level (Ardichvili, Cardozo, & Ray, 2003; Gaglio & Katz, 2001; Shane, 2000; Shepherd, McMullen, & Jennings, 2007)
The concept of entrepreneurial alertness has contributed to research on opportunity identification since through the development of this concept, a clearer explanation has been obtained as to why only some people are more aware of the information and changes that point towards a possible entrepreneurial opportunity (Tang, Kacmar & Busenitz, 2012)
Our results indicate that the square root of the average variance extracted (AVE) values (.78 for intense positive feelings in entrepreneurial passion, .70 for creativity, and .84 for entrepreneurial alertness) were greater than all the correlations they had with the other variables
Summary
Identifying entrepreneurial opportunities has been a key topic in the field of entrepreneurship (Busenitz, Plummer, Klotz, Shahzad, & Rhoads, 2014; Short, Ketchen, Shook, & Ireland, 2010), and its study has been linked to abilities and capabilities at an individual level (Ardichvili, Cardozo, & Ray, 2003; Gaglio & Katz, 2001; Shane, 2000; Shepherd, McMullen, & Jennings, 2007). Alertness requires a creative act, which may influence the further development and improvement of the entrepreneurial opportunity (Baron, 2004; Kirzner, 2009). Creativity has not been empirically studied as an antecedent of entrepreneurial alertness. Creativity is another key element in the beginning of the entrepreneurial process, since it contributes to the design of new products and services (Gielnik, Frese, Graf, & Kampschulte, 2012; Heinonen, Hytti, & Stenholm, 2011). As suggested by Shane, Locke and Collins (2003), cognitive elements and people’s abilities are insufficient, and as such, emotional aspects are required. One of the elements considered in this study as a precedent of creativity is affect, and entrepreneurial passion (Cardon, Gregoire, Stevens, & Patel, 2013)
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