Entrepreneurial Passion and Serial Entrepreneurship: A Moderated Mediation Model of Entrepreneurial Alertness and Social Capital

Entrepreneurial passion is a key psychological factor driving serial entrepreneurial intention, yet its intrinsic mechanism and the moderating role of social capital have not been fully explored. Drawing on the cognitive–social capital integration perspective, this paper develops a moderated mediation model to examine the pathways through which entrepreneurial passion influences serial entrepreneurial intention via entrepreneurial alertness, and to analyze the moderating effects of bonding and bridging social capital. Based on a questionnaire survey and structural equation modeling of 504 Chinese entrepreneurs with serial entrepreneurial intention, the results show that entrepreneurial passion not only directly enhances serial entrepreneurial intention, but also indirectly strengthens it through increased entrepreneurial alertness; bridging social capital positively moderates the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and alertness, whereas the moderating effect of bonding social capital is not significant. These findings reveal the interaction mechanisms of entrepreneurial passion, cognition, and social networks in shaping serial entrepreneurial intention, and offer practical implications for entrepreneurs to optimize network resource allocation.