The role of passion diversity, compassion, and self-compassion for team entrepreneurial passion

Plain English SummaryDoes being compassionate to the self and others contribute to the emergence of shared entrepreneurial passion in venture teams? Team entrepreneurial passion plays an important role in business ventures as it can positively impact team-level outcomes and venture performance. Our research on venture teams of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) shows that the development of a shared passion in teams is supported by high levels of compassion and self-compassion among team members. We also demonstrate that having multiple roles or activities that a team is passionate about is more beneficial for team outcomes than a single passion focus. Our study offers important practical insights for entrepreneurs and management teams as it highlights the importance of social emotional aspects in teams as well as the advantage of selecting venture team members with diverse individual passions. Passion among entrepreneurial teams can contribute to team performance; yet we still have little understanding of the determinants of team passion. Drawing from the literature on social emotions, we theorize and empirically examine the influence of compassion and self-compassion of team members on the shared team entrepreneurial passion (TEP). Using an original sample of 326 individuals from 107 venture teams, we provide novel evidence that, in addition to team passion diversity, compassion and self-compassion significantly relate to TEP. Specifically, we demonstrate that compassion and self-compassion contribute to polyfocal TEP, which is more beneficial for team outcomes than monofocal TEP.