ENTREPRENEUR PASSION AND PREPAREDNESS IN BUSINESS PLAN PRESENTATIONS: A PERSUASION ANALYSIS OF VENTURE CAPITALISTS' FUNDING DECISIONS

We investigated the extent to which venture capitalists' (VCs') perceptions of "entrepreneurial passion" influence the VCs' investment decisions, We defined entrepreneurial passion as an entrepreneur's intense affective state accompanied by cognitive and behavioral manifestations of high personal value. We conceptualized VCs' decision making as a persuasion process in which entrepreneurs present a message (a business plan) to attract investors using the "unimodel" of persuasion. After developing a measure of perceived passion and preparedness using an inductive, qualitative approach, we conducted a laboratory experiment and a field study that consistently showed that preparedness, not passion, positively impacted decisions to fund ventures.