The Dark Triad and Nascent Entrepreneurship: An Examination of Unproductive versus Productive Entrepreneurial Motives

Abstract

This study examined relationships of the dark triad personality characteristics (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) with entrepreneurial intentions and motives. Results from samples of business undergraduates (N = 508) and MBA students (N = 234) found narcissism to be positively related to entrepreneurial intentions. In addition, results from subgroups of business undergraduates and MBA students high in entrepreneurial intentions (i.e., early‐stage nascent entrepreneurs) indicated differences in motives for engaging in the startup process. Specifically, we found all facets of the dark triad to be positively associated with unproductive entrepreneurial motives, and observed differential associations of the dark triad characteristics with productive entrepreneurial motives.

Entrepreneurs embrace competition: evidence from a lab-in-the-field study

“…We contribute to the body of research investigating entrepreneurs' responses to competition by conceptually distinguishing between different facets of competitiveness and by providing empirical evidence that entrepreneurs are more likely to select into competitive environments than non-entrepreneurs because of their enjoyment of competition, a facet of competitiveness for which there is not yet reliable evidence. This study complements previous research examining behavior of entrepreneurs in competition that suggests entrepreneurs tend to be more aggressive, if not ruthless, in competitions (Utsch et al 1999;Hmieleski and Lerner 2016;Levine and Rubinstein 2017), having a high need for achievement motivation (McClelland 1965;Rauch and Frese 2007), and might be generally more likely to favor competitive over non-competitive environments (Bönte and Piegeler 2013;Holm et al 2013). Entrepreneurs enjoy competition irrespective of whether they expect to win, which rules out the desire to win as a motivation for entry into competition, and irrespective of the degree to which a task depends on skills, which rules out mastery-related motives, and, more generally, achievement motivations as a reason for entering competition.…”

“…entrepreneurs, even when controlling for the other two facets of competition, our results demonstrate the relevance of enjoyment of competition as antecedent to selection into competition. In sum, our study on enjoyment of competition extends and complements research focusing on behavior in competitions, which suggests that entrepreneurs behave more aggressively and possibly even ruthlessly when competing (Utsch et al 1999;Hmieleski and Lerner 2016;Levine and Rubinstein 2017) and that mastery of tasks and outperforming others is associated with entrepreneurship (McClelland 1965;Rauch and Frese 2007).…”

“…First, a strong desire to win can result in greater efforts to win a competition but may also lead to aggressive or even unethical behavior (Ryckman et al 1990;Houston et al 2002a;Newby and Klein 2014). A positive association between such behaviors and entrepreneurship is already demonstrated in the literature (e.g., Berge et al 2015;Utsch et al 1999;Hmieleski and Lerner 2016;Levine and Rubinstein 2017). Second, striving for personal development and mastery of tasks may also affect an individual's decision to enter competitions (Ryckman et al 1996;Newby and Klein 2014).…”

“…For instance, individuals who dislike competitions may be forced to enter competitive environments and may respond to this by competing aggressively. While aggressive behavior in competitions is already associated with entrepreneurs (e.g., Utsch et al 1999;Hmieleski and Lerner 2016), such behavioral tendencies within competitive environments are distinct from preferences to enter competitions. 5 Relatedly, individuals maximizing own rewards relative to others' rewards are also considered to be competitive individuals (e.g., van Lange et al 1997;Fehr and Schmidt 1999) and these distributional preferences are linked to selection into entrepreneurship (e.g., Weitzel et al 2010).…”

Critical Success Factors of a Design Startup Business

“…Gentry et al [61] explained that entrepreneurship is not merely to be rich but to dream of building your own kingdom, to demonstrate that you are superior to others, and to follow the joy that comes in the course of creating a startup. In startups, entrepreneurship is the starting point of a business and the driving force to pass the difficult period in the early years (from three to five years) of the startup, which is called the "death valley" [62]. Many startup founders are also immersed in the items and concepts that they want to offer rather than the benefits that they can provide to customers, thus failing to fulfill the needs of the market where the customers exist.…”