The Triad Divided: A Curvilinear Mediation Model Linking Founder Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy to New Venture Performance

Across two studies, we apply self-regulation theory to test nonlinear relationships between founder Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy and new venture performance. Our hypotheses are supported for Machiavellianism and psychopathy, but contrary to our theorizing, we find a positive relatio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Entrepreneurship theory and practice 2024-01, Vol.48 (1), p.310-348
Main Authors: Brownell, Katrina M., Quinn, Audra, Bolinger, Mark T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antisocial personality disorder
Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship
Financial performance
Machiavellianism
Narcissism
Personality traits
Regulation theory
Self regulation
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Summary:Across two studies, we apply self-regulation theory to test nonlinear relationships between founder Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy and new venture performance. Our hypotheses are supported for Machiavellianism and psychopathy, but contrary to our theorizing, we find a positive relationship between narcissism and performance. Furthermore, we identify an important explanatory mechanism in knowledge sharing, which mediates the curvilinear relationships at moderate and high levels. Our research has implications for how we understand the influence of problematic founder personality traits and how behavioral differences at varying levels of these traits can explain relationships with performance, and it presents a nuanced perspective to trait-based explanations for destructive entrepreneurial actions.
ISSN:1042-2587
1540-6520
DOI:10.1177/10422587231173684