Localised entrepreneurial passion is considered to promote individuals to actively participate in entrepreneurial activities, induce entrepreneurs’ inspiration and motivation, and drive entrepreneurs’ passionate investment in entrepreneurial activities. If localised entrepreneurial passion has an impact on the engagement of embedded local entrepreneurs, how does this impact occur and what is the internal mechanism? Since localised entrepreneurial passion was put forward, it has been gradually becoming a new topic in the second generation research on entrepreneurial passion. However, few studies pay attention to the impact mechanism of localised entrepreneurial passion on entrepreneurial engagement.

Based on the emotional contagion theory, social identity theory, identity-based motivation theory and social learning theory, a multi-mediation model is constructed from the affective reactions and inferential processes of Emotions as Social Information Model. Further, this paper investigates the internal mechanism between localised entrepreneurial passion and entrepreneurial engagement based on the retrospective survey data of 332 entrepreneurs. It is found that localised entrepreneurial passion not only directly promotes individual entrepreneurial engagement, but also indirectly drives entrepreneurial engagement through entrepreneurial goal clarity, and even stimulates entrepreneurial engagement through the chain mediator of entrepreneurial identity centrality and entrepreneurial goal clarity. The conclusions show that there is an emotional imitation feedback mechanism, a social learning mechanism and an identity-based motivation mechanism in the driving of localised entrepreneurial passion to individual entrepreneurial engagement.

The following implications are obtained: First, local governments should pay attention to the cultivation of localised entrepreneurial passion and be good buzzing shapers. Second, entrepreneurial platforms should pay attention to the driving effect of localised entrepreneurial passion and be good buzzing communicators. Third, entrepreneurs should pay attention to the important role of localised entrepreneurial passion in promoting entrepreneurial engagement and be good buzzing transformers.

The theoretical contributions are as follows: First, this paper explores the psychological cognitive mechanism of localised entrepreneurial passion affecting individual entrepreneurial engagement from the perspective of Emotions as Social Information Model, so as to expand the explanatory boundary of entrepreneurial passion perception and infection. Second, taking the informal institutional environment as the starting point, this paper reveals the predictive effect of localised entrepreneurial passion on entrepreneurial engagement, which enriches the antecedents of entrepreneurial engagement.

The limitations are as follows: First, the retrospective investigation may not be able to strictly judge the causal relationship between these variables due to memory bias. Second, to use the self-reported homologous data may have an impact on the reliability of research conclusions. Third, the boundary between localised entrepreneurial passion and entrepreneurial engagement has not been explored.