This is an early draft version of a paper which eventually appears as: Watne, T., Kautonen, T. & Hakala, H. (2012). Business from passion? An enquiry into the business models of craft breweries in Victoria, Australia. Proceedings accepted to the International council for small business world conference (ICSB), Wellington, New Zealand, 10-13 June. BUSINESS FROM PASSION? AN ENQUIRY INTO THE BUSINESS MODELS OF CRAFT BREWERIES IN VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA Torgeir Watne, Victoria University, School of International Business, torgeir.watne@vu.edu.au Henri Hakala, University of Vaasa, Department of Management, henri.hakala@uwasa.fi Teemu Kautonen, University of Turku, TSE Entre, teemu.kautonen@utu.fi SUMMARY This paper explores the business models adopted by craft breweries in the state of Victoria, Australia. The brewing industry is undergoing dramatic changes in many countries, with increasing numbers of craft breweries challenging the traditional duo- or oligopolies of major corporations in niche markets. So far, little research has addressed the craft beer industry and this paper is one of the first to actually focus on the breweries and their owners. The underlying assumption in this study is that craft beer entrepreneurs are driven by some form of entrepreneurial passion. Building upon the foundation of a typology of entrepreneurial role identities related to passion, this paper investigates how different objects of passion influence the business models that craft brewers choose to operate. The paper reports initial results from an on- going research project. Keywords: entrepreneurial passion, business model, craft beer, Australia Contact details: torgeir.watne@vu.edu.au NB: This paper reports research that is work-in-progress. Should you wish to cite the paper or if you are interested in its further development, please contact the authors for an up-to-date version.