Effects of entrepreneur passion on persuasion: Study of venture capitalist funding decisions toward hospitality and tourism business plan presentation

This study investigates the effects of entrepreneurs' passion on persuasion by focusing on venture capitalist funding decisions toward hospitality and tourism business plan presentation. To this end, we conducted two studies. In study 1, we collected evidence from 13 hospitality and tourism start-up financing projects broadcasted on China Central Television Channel 2 by utilizing a Linguistic csQCA. In study 2, we conducted an experimental analysis of entrepreneur passion and venture capitalists'(VCs') funding decisions via the causality test of 277 participants. Our findings indicate that both cognitive and affective passion have significantly positive effects on VCs' funding decisions and that VCs' involvement moderates the effects of cognitive passion and affective passion on VCs' funding decisions. The established integrative model has important implications for research on entrepreneur passion and investment decisions in entrepreneurial pitches from an involvement perspective, and the impact of entrepreneur passion on persuasion in hospitality and tourism entrepreneurship.