“I put in effort, but I am still not passionate”: The fit perceptions of novice entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurial effort has been found to be an important predictor of entrepreneurial passion. The more effort one devotes to entrepreneurial activities, the more passionate one becomes. Our work, however, extends prior research by offering contrasting empirical evidence. Drawing on fit theory and the person-entrepreneurship fit perspective, we propose that for novice individuals, who do not feel a strong fit with entrepreneurship, engaging in entrepreneurial effort would increase the perception of misfit, thereby reducing their entrepreneurial passion. Results from two experimental studies confirm our hypotheses. Our research contributes to the entrepreneurial passion and the person-entrepreneurship fit literatures.