When Creation Becomes Fixation: Venture Obsession and Agentic Relationships

Traditionally, agency theory in strategic management research is predicated on a self-interest relationship between an agent and a principal. However, there is evidence from recent literature that this conceptualization is overly simple for entrepreneurial ventures where the agent is the entrepreneur and the principal is the investor. Specifically, when entrepreneurial passion becomes venture obsession, entrepreneurs become willing to sacrifice their own self-interest as well as the interest of other stakeholders for the interest of the venture, giving rise to obsessive agency. We theorize on the agentic relationships and propose a model extending recent work on agency theory, entrepreneurial passion, and venture-related obsession.