Untangling the dynamic nature of entrepreneurial passion by using the latent transition analysis approach

Existing research on entrepreneurial passion is mostly based on exploring the changes in the level of entrepreneurial passion and its causes from a variable-centered perspective. However, this ignores how different entrepreneurial passions of different entrepreneurs will produce differentiated changes in entrepreneurial practice activities. Therefore, this study adopts a person-centered perspective to examine how entrepreneurial passion transits and how the change in goal content influences its transition. Our findings verify that there are four entrepreneurial passion profiles, including passionate profile, action-driven profile, dispassionate profile, interest-driven profile. We creatively found entrepreneurs are more likely to experience positive transitions (for example, from dispassionate/interest-driven to passionate/action-driven) if they experience an increase in internal goals and external goals. Negative transitions (for example, from passionate/action-driven to dispassionate) are mostly associated with a decrease in external goals. Overall, the findings help us to better grasp the dynamic nature of entrepreneurial passion and intervening by adjusting the changes in goal content.