Does team entrepreneurial passion matter for relationship conflict and team performance? On the importance of fit between passion focus and venture development stage

This study advances the literature on entrepreneurial passion, which struggles to explain when and how the experience of passion impacts venture-level performance, by shifting the focus to the team level and investigating the mechanisms and contingencies underlying this relationship. Drawing on identity control theory and the literature on new venture life cycle stages, we theorize and test that team entrepreneurial passion (TEP) affects new venture team performance via relationship conflict, and that this mechanism differs depending on whether the team’s passion focus is aligned with the venture’s development stage. Based on survey data and start-up competition scores from 86 new venture teams, we conclude that a prerequisite for a team to benefit from the experience of TEP, is that its passion focus at least reflects the entrepreneurial activities that are required for the specific development stage the venture operates in. Implications for research and practice are discussed