This study examines how entrepreneurs sustain their entrepreneurial passion in the face of entrepreneurial adversities. Drawing on 78 interviews with 40 entrepreneurs, we find that depending on their initial role identities entrepreneurs sustain their entrepreneurial passion through different types of identity work. Entrepreneurship-driven individuals who started out with an entrepreneurial role identity sustain their entrepreneurial passion in the face of passion-threatening adversities by expanding their entrepreneurial role identities, resulting in a multiple identity structure. In later stages, they deal with passion-threatening adversities by shifting among those different role identities. In contrast, profession-driven individuals who start out with a professional role identity sustain their passion in the face of passion-threatening adversities by integrating professional and entrepreneurial role identities, resulting in a single identity structure. In later stages, they deal with passion-threatening adversities by shifting among different ventures to enact their specialist entrepreneur role identity. By discovering the coevolutionary dynamics of entrepreneurial identity and entrepreneurial passion over a series of adversities, we contribute to a deeper and more dynamic understanding of both entrepreneurial passion and entrepreneurial identity.
