Passion and performance: A moderated mediation model of bricolage and entrepreneurial autonomy

Harmonious passion is widely theorized as a powerful driver of performance, yet empirical findings remain mixed, leaving critical gaps in understanding when and how passion translates into performance. To resolve these inconsistencies, we theorize a moderated mediation model in which harmonious passion indirectly enhances firm performance through entrepreneurial bricolage (i.e., a firm’s capability to recombine existing resources under constraints creatively) and propose entrepreneurial autonomy as a critical boundary condition that strengthens this mediation effect. Specifically, we argue that harmoniously passionate CEOs of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) advance bricolage through deliberate practice, creative solutions, and awareness of organizational capacity. Bricolage, in turn, enhances SMEs’ performance by enabling creative resource recombination, proactive responses to resource constraints, and maximal utilization of available resources. Moreover, entrepreneurial autonomy strengthens these benefits by granting structural freedom and flexibility to implement unconventional, bricolage-driven solutions. We empirically test this moderated mediation model with multi-source, multi-wave data collected from 237 CEOs and top executives of Korean SMEs. By identifying bricolage as the behavioral mechanism and entrepreneurial autonomy as the contextual boundary, we clarify why prior passion–performance findings diverged. Our results show that harmoniously passionate CEOs achieve stronger firm performance, primarily when SMEs operate in autonomy-rich environments that support creative resource management and improvisational problem-solving.