Abstract: Persistence is a key element for entrepreneurs to succeed in pursuit of their goals. We still don’t know too much about what makes some entrepreneurs persist in their venture efforts while others quit? We construct a theoretical model about the relationship among entrepreneurial passion, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial persistence. We empirically examine the model and get following conclusions. Harmonious passion and obsessive passion are both positively associated with entrepreneurial persistence. The harmonious passion to persistence relationship is fully mediated by entrepreneurial self-efficacy, but the obsessive passion to persistence relationship is partially mediated. With the increase of previous entrepreneurial experience, the positive association between harmonious passion and entrepreneurial self-efficacy is increasing, but the positive association between obsessive passion and entrepreneurial self-efficacy is decreasing.

Key words: entrepreneurial passion, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, entrepreneurial persistence