The mediating role of passion in entrepreneurship intention: Identity centrality and role models increase passion

Abstract

Entrepreneurial passion is the key to starting a business. Passion motivates desire so that entrepreneurs strive to achieve success. Passion is not only the experience of intense emotions but also a part of identity centrality. On the other hand, an individual’s entrepreneurial decisions can be influenced by the opinions and behaviors conveyed by others and a person's career ambitions can be significantly stimulated if they have a role model. The role model, in addition to inspiration, also plays an important role in helping individuals learn to identify themselves so entrepreneurial role models impart entrepreneurial passion for individuals to shape entrepreneurial intentions. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of passion in both relationships: between entrepreneurial identity centrality and entrepreneurship intention as well as between the entrepreneurial role model and entrepreneurship intention. The study is a quantitative research, data is surveyed in a single time collected from a population. 531 questionnaires are distributed to young people who are studying and working in Ho Chi Minh City and has the intention to start-up their own business. The findings of the research show that both above relationships are significantly mediated by passion. The research could support the theory of distal and proximal antecedence that influence entrepreneurship intention for students.