Narcissism and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Six Data Sets
There has been widespread attention to the alleged rise of narcissism in the general population, and in business leaders in particular. Surprisingly, few studies have focused on the association between narcissism and entrepreneurship; using self-reported data from 4798 respondents in three countries, we investigate the association between trait narcissism and six different entrepreneurial dimensions representing the entire entrepreneurial process. Overall, our findings suggest that there is a positive association between narcissism and entrepreneurship. This is especially true in the early stages of the entrepreneurial process (e.g., entrepreneurial intentions) and in individual aspects of entrepreneurship (e.g., entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial well-being). (entrepreneurs). Our additional analysis shows that the adaptive aspects of narcissism (i.e., leadership/authority) are most consistently linked to entrepreneurship, and the link between narcissism and entrepreneurship is largely linear. Finally, when various sets of controls are added, our findings are generally robust.
YIK KIU Leon B CIngmar Franken C D Roy Thurik C , E , G Marta Yin Driessen H Katsuyuki Kamei I Olivier Torres F G Ingrid Verheul J
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbvi.2020.e00216
Explanation
This study investigates the relationship between narcissism and six different aspects of entrepreneurship and is a large scale survey of a total of 4798 respondents. The items included in the study were Entrepreneurial Intentions, Entrepreneurial Orientation, Entrepreneurial Choices, Entrepreneurial Success, and Entrepreneurial Happiness, and the results, as noted above, revealed that a positive association exists between narcissism and entrepreneurship.
However, the manifestations were different, and each study stated the following
Entrepreneurial intentions were most consistently associated with narcissism. The reason for this is explained by the fact that narcissists are attracted to entrepreneurial intentions and that there is a high degree of conformity between people and their work. In particular, the narcissist's need for attention, admiration, power, and autonomy suggests a heroic public image and a relatively challenging and dangerous work environment for entrepreneurs.
The results of the survey were not conclusive on the choice of entrepreneurs.
And one of the least explored relationships in entrepreneurship was described as the relationship between narcissism and entrepreneurial success, and the findings showed that the degree of narcissism in SME owners was not associated with business success. This is explained by the fact that previous studies have proven that there is no significant relationship between narcissism and job performance of salaried employees, which also explains the lack of relationship between CEO narcissism and business performance.
For entrepreneurial well-being, we show that narcissism is positively associated with life satisfaction in two samples of SME owners and positively correlated with career satisfaction of SME owners in one of the two samples.
Finally, the positive association between narcissism and entrepreneurship is with an individual's entrepreneurial orientation, which explains the extent to which people are risk-taking, innovative, and proactive. This is not just a personal issue, but can be explained in terms of business as well, he said. In other words, we find that organizations that are managed by narcissistic top executives are more likely to pursue strategies (risk-taking, innovative, proactive) that resemble the typical characteristics of entrepreneurs.
