Hidden Stories and The Dark Side of Entrepreneurial Commitment

Entrepreneurs are generally considered to be persistent in striving highly desirable goals as a binding force to a course of action. This dedicated engagement is representing commitment, and is described by affective and instrumental components. Although the combination of these two components helps entrepreneurs to achieve high levels of advancement and investment in their entrepreneurial process, critiques have been raised whether commitment leads to a positive entrepreneurial outcome at any cost. In this study, we explore the darker side of entrepreneurial commitment, namely overinvestment. Using a fsQCA approach, we demonstrate that different combinations of commitment forms lead entrepreneurs to overinvest in their projects, and that commitment by no means constantly benefits entrepreneurs. By doing so, this paper contributes by exposing combinations of conditions that lead to overinvestment, identifying four different commitment profiles: an “Affective profile”, a “Project committed profile”, a “Profession committed profile” and a “Affective project profile”. Our paper shows that these commitment profiles are driven by a complex combination of psycho-social risks, and brings nuance to prior assumptions that commitment and emotions go together toward personal and venture growth.