Task Conflict, Narcissism and Entrepreneurial Capability in Teams Planning a Business: A Moderated Moderation Approach to Explaining Business Planning Performance

Abstract

Drawing on the dynamic self‐regulatory processing model of narcissism, we hypothesize that in teams planning a business, task conflict relates positively to business planning performance and that this link is reinforced by the team's narcissism. By integrating aspects of human capital theory, this brighter side of narcissism is amplified where the narcissism is aligned with entrepreneurial capability and the team members' belief in their entrepreneurial capability. The findings of the moderated moderation analysis examining 66 teams of entrepreneurship students support the study's assumptions and provide meaningful implications for social psychology and personality researchers in entrepreneurship.

Narcissism and Entrepreneurship: A Systematic Review and an Agenda for Future Research

“…This results in team members maintaining positive attitudes toward entrepreneurship, which can ultimately affect the team's entrepreneurial planning performance. Kollmann et al (2019) verified that the level of narcissism in entrepreneurial teams strengthened the positive correlation between task conflicts and business planning performance. Besides, they also found that the moderating role played by the team's level of narcissism is stronger when team member's actual and perceived entrepreneurial capabilities are higher.…”

“…For example, the meta-analysis of Jin et al (2017) found that the characteristics of entrepreneurial teams (e.g., team size, average team member experience, heterogeneity related to age, gender, and work experience) have a significantly positive impact on the performance of startups. The results of Kollmann et al (2019) illustrate that team task conflict can effectively improve the quality of business plans in student teams. De Mol et al (2015) analyzed 44 studies on entrepreneurial team cognition and demonstrated that it could promote information processing, opportunity recognition, decision-making efficiency, and team learning.…”

“…Moreover, this shorter scale has been widely used in the study of narcissism and entrepreneurship. Among the 23 empirical studies we retained, 7 adopted the NPI-16 to measure narcissism (e.g., Mathieu and St-Jean, 2013;Wales et al, 2013;Stöckmann et al, 2015;Kollmann et al, 2019;Leonelli et al, 2019;Liu et al, 2019;Shabbir and Kousar, 2019).…”

How Shared Leadership in Entrepreneurial Teams Influences New Venture Performance: A Moderated Mediation Model

“…Despite the value of reflexivity, the reflexivity demands placed on entrepreneurial teams are uniquely challenging (Forsstrom-Tuominen et al, 2019; Kollmann et al, 2019). Several scholars have demonstrated that it is normally hard for teams spontaneously reflecting on their conventional work styles and processes (Konradt et al, 2015).…”

Can Group Intelligence Help Entrepreneurs Find Better Opportunities?

“…Few studies pay attention to team process factors. Kollmann et al (2018) investigate the relationship between task conflict and entrepreneurial capability in teams planning a business. In this study, scholars find task conflict is beneficial to business planning performance.…”