The term “entrepreneurship addiction” was formally introduced by Spivack and McKelvie (2018), who argued that entrepreneurial effort can escalate into a pattern resembling behavioral addiction. In their framework, entrepreneurship addiction occurs when an individual continues to pursue entrepreneurial activities compulsively, even when doing so produces clear harm. These behaviors include chronic overwork, relentless opportunity seeking, refusal to rest after setbacks, and an inability to disengage from venture-related tasks.

Earlier work by Spivack, McKelvie, and Haynie (2014) proposed that entrepreneurship addiction could be meaningfully interpreted through Griffiths’ (2005) components model of addiction. This model includes six core criteria—salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict, and relapse. When applied to entrepreneurship, these components manifest in patterns such as making the business the central focus of life, using entrepreneurial activity as emotional regulation, needing increasingly intense venture involvement to feel stimulated, experiencing distress when unable to work, encountering conflict in family or social domains, and returning to high-intensity entrepreneurial activity even after burnout or failure.

This framing suggests that entrepreneurship addiction is not merely “passion” or “dedication.” Instead, it reflects a compulsive behavioral pattern that persists despite negative consequences—psychological, relational, or financial. 

By Mustafa Tut Brown Jr.