Friend or foe? The effects of harmonious and obsessive passion on entrepreneurs’ well-being, strain and social loneliness

Abstract

Purpose Passion is considered a critical aspect of entrepreneurship. According to the dualistic model of passion (DMP), entrepreneurs’ passion for their work can be harmonious or obsessive, leading to different personal and work outcomes. Drawing on DMP and the self-determination theory, this paper investigates these two types of passion for work and their effects on entrepreneurs’ subjective well-being (SWB), psychological strain and social loneliness.Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a self-administered online survey with 312 entrepreneurs in Turkey. The authors selected the sample using purposive sampling and referrals through snowballing via associations, university start-up organizations, entrepreneur lists and personal networks. The data are analyzed using multiple regression analysis.Findings The results show that harmonious passion is negatively related to strain, while obsessive passion is positively related to both strain and social loneliness. Furthermore, both types of passion are associated with higher SWB. Finally, age moderates the relationship between obsessive passion and SWB.Practical implications The findings draw attention to another dark side to entrepreneurship and a useful perspective to raise awareness that entrepreneurs may think positively of obsessive passion and ignore the negative consequences.Originality/value This study contributes to the literature by showing that both positive and negative consequences of passion may co-exist based on the entrepreneurs’ self-perceptions. It also contributes to the very scarce research in non-western, emerging contexts in entrepreneurial passion research and constitutes the first study conducted on this topic in Turkey.

Linking Passion for Work and Emotional Exhaustion in Indonesian Firefighters: The Role of Work–Family Conflict

“…Indonesia has a collectivity culture score of 86, which is extremely high compared to western countries [ 68 ]. A collectivist culture causes OP to have a negative effect on EE, as it is associated with interdependent self-construal based on the expectations of communities, receiving assistance from others to overcome problems, and family support that helps improve well-being despite encountering difficulties [ 5 ]. These findings suggest that OP can be associated with a double-edged sword because, on the one hand, OP can increase WFC while, on the other hand, OP decreases EE.…”

“…In recent years, passion for work has gained considerable academic and managerial attention [ 3 , 5 , 6 ]. A decade ago, the dualistic model of passion (DMP) proposed that there are two types of passion: harmonious and obsessive passion [ 7 , 8 ].…”

“…Chen et al [ 10 ] asserted that earlier studies only addressed passion as a unidimensional construct and were unable to explain why two employees can have the same level of passion for their profession but distinct psychological results. Moreover, according to Bayraktar and Jimenez [ 5 ], equating harmonious passion with consistently favorable outcomes and obsessive passion with consistently negative effects would oversimplify the circumstances. Indeed, prior studies have revealed contradictory conclusions about whether harmonious passion is always beneficial and obsessive behavior is always detrimental [ 4 , 8 , 11 ].…”

“…The DMP classifies passion into two categories: harmonious and obsessive [ 6 ]. Harmonious passion (HP) originates from autonomous internalization [ 5 , 18 ]. It implies that HP is the outcome of a sustained and voluntary internalization process for a particular activity, without any pressure to perform it until it becomes an integral part of one’s self-identity [ 6 ].…”

“…However, the person’s investment in psychological resources and affection is uncontrollable [ 21 ]. In other words, passion for the activity begins to control the individual instead of the individual controlling the activity [ 5 ]. As a result, individuals are compelled to engage in activities they perceive as their passion.…”