Reflecting subjective feelings of aliveness, thrivingness and energy, entrepreneurs’ eudaimonic well-being helps to enhance firm performance, which raises the question how to improve this largely under-researched type of well-being. Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory, this study examines how an entrepreneur’s obsessive passion has an inverted U-shaped association while harmonious has a positive association with their eudaimonic well-being, and how these relationships vary under the moderating effect of socially prescribed perfectionism.
Study 1 includes a survey with entrepreneurs from 182 small businesses in Vietnam. To overcome the limitation of cross-sectional data in Study 1 and test the hypotheses in a diverse and western sample, this research employed a two-wave lagged design in Study 2 with 81 entrepreneurs in the United States and United Kingdom.
Both studies confirmed that an entrepreneur’s harmonious passion has a positive association and obsessive passion has an inverted U-shaped association with their eudaimonic well-being. This study also found these associations are moderated by socially prescribed perfectionism.
This research extends the literature on eudaimonic well-being in entrepreneurship by confirming its determinants and contributes to the debate about the positive side of obsessive passion. Also, its examination of socially prescribed perfectionism in the context of entrepreneurship lays the foundation for further research on the role of this important personality trait in shaping the performance and well-being of entrepreneurs. This study provides theoretical contributions and managerial implications and suggests areas for future research.
