Entrepreneurial passion and SMEs’ performance: moderating effects of financial resource availability and resource flexibility

In this paper, we examine the effects of the three identity-based entrepreneurial passions (EPs) (that is, passion for inventing, developing, and founding) on established small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs’) performance. We adopt a resource contingency perspective to develop our theoretical model to examine the relationship between EP, resources, and SMEs’ performance. Specifically, we investigate the moderating influence of financial resource availability and resource flexibility on the relationship between EP and SMEs’ performance. We test our hypotheses using time-lagged data from 193 SMEs in Ghana. Our hypotheses are largely supported, and this offers a nuanced view of the relationship between the different domains of EP and performance. Our findings contribute to the passion, SME, and broader entrepreneurship literature.