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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter April 16, 2013

Obsession in Entrepreneurs – Towards a Conceputalisation

  • Rosemary Fisher EMAIL logo , Alex Maritz and Antonio Lobo

Abstract

We examine a tenuous and intriguing suggestion emerging from qualitative research into passion that entrepreneurs experience venture-related obsession. Responding to this observation, we develop an understanding of obsession in entrepreneurship and clinical and non-clinical populations. We propose that entrepreneurs may experience venture-related obsessions that are similar to obsession as described in the clinical literature and develop a model of entrepreneurial obsession. We suggest that obsession may have a relationship with passion and contribute productively towards desirable entrepreneurial outcomes despite its potential to stimulate negative affect or anxiety. Further research is warranted to explore and define this construct.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the two anonymous reviewers whose insightful comments and expert advice have contributed to the enhancement of our article.

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  1. 1

    Miller (2007) notes that Alexander Fleming inadvertently discovered penicillin when a mysterious spore killed the bacteria cultures he was working on; Frederick Banting used conjecture and hunch and discovered how to extract insulin, and Ignaz Semmelweis observed a difference in mortality rates between patients nursed by staff coming from and not coming from the morgue. Despite conflicting with the current theory regarding the benefits of hand washing, Semmelweis’s conclusions ultimately informed the bacterial infection theories of Pasteur, Lister and Koch (Miller 2007).

  2. 2

    Data are not reported verbatim. Verbal ticks, hesitations, emphasis and repetitions have been edited to improve readability without changing meaning.

  3. 3

    Flyvbjerg (2001) lists Aristotle’s virtues of thought as episteme, techne and phronesis.

Published Online: 2013-04-16

© 2013 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin / Boston

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