This study investigates the impact of entrepreneurs' obsessive passion on potential job seekers, exploring whether it functions as an asset or a liability in startup recruitment. Drawing upon signaling theory and person–environment (PE) fit theory, we develop a contingent model that elucidates job seekers’ perceptions of “obsessive passion” as a recruitment signal taking their individual characteristics as boundary conditions for the interpretation of this signal into account. Our hypotheses were tested through a metric conjoint experiment involving 181 job seekers, yielding 2,896 decisions. The results indicate that the impact of an entrepreneur’s perceived obsessive passion on a venture’s attractiveness as a potential employer is contingent upon the characteristics of the job seeker. Specifically, signaling obsessive passion is only attractive to job seekers with highly proactive personalities and entrepreneurial self-efficacy; those who score low on these factors, as well as those who are risk-averse, tend to be repelled by such signals. These findings contribute to the literature on new venture recruitment by demonstrating how signals of obsessive passion aid in the self-selection of applicants, ultimately attracting employees well-suited for the entrepreneurial environment.
