Network to passion or passion to network? Disentangling entrepreneurial passion selection and contagion effects among peers and teams in a startup accelerator

Entrepreneurial passion is socially contagious. However, do entrepreneurs also select whom they interact with based on passion similarity? The complex interdependencies between social net-works and entrepreneurial passion remain undertheorized and empirically puzzling. Using a stochastic actor-oriented model (SIENA) and four waves of panel data, we test hypotheses about the co-evolution of social networks and entrepreneurial passion during a 5-month startup accelerator program. We observe that social ties occur more frequently among peer entrepreneurs who are similar in levels of passion for founding. Initial homophily selection explains 34% of this observed similarity whereas social contagion explains 57%. Finally, we find that passion for founding is more contagious among members of startup teams than across other peer ties. Sur-prisingly, none of these effects are significant for passion for inventing. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.