Linking entrepreneurial passion and innovation under the dynamic influence of entrepreneurs’ age: the case of Vietnamese SMEs

Drawing upon the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, this research focuses on examining two mediating mechanisms linking entrepreneurial passion and firm-level innovation performance under the dynamic influence of entrepreneurs’ age. The study uses a survey with a sample of 186 entrepreneurs who were owners or founders of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam. The empirical study shows that entrepreneurial passion directly improves firms’ innovation performance, and indirectly via two mediators: entrepreneurial alertness and self-efficacy. Furthermore, the findings reveal that entrepreneurs’ age has a U-shaped moderating effect on the link between entrepreneurial passion and self-efficacy, and a positive moderating effect on the link between passion and alertness. This study is among the few to explore the impact of entrepreneurial passion as an entrepreneur-level emotion on a critical firm-level business outcome. Besides, it contributes to the innovation literature by examining the mediating mechanisms through which entrepreneurial passion turns into improvements in firm-level innovation performance. Finally, the research extends the entrepreneurship literature by confirming how these mediating mechanisms differ at different stages of an entrepreneur’s lifecycle