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The bright side of a dark personality – How dark triad traits influence entrepreneurial passion

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  • Vera Hedwig Schmidt, Corinna
  • Rössig, Sarah-Alena
  • Ruth, Martin
  • Christina Flatten, Tessa

Abstract

While earlier research has identified beneficial outcomes of entrepreneurial passion, our study extends the scarce literature on its antecedents. Conceptualizing entrepreneurial passion as an identity-based construct influenced by personality traits, we draw on identity theory to investigate how the dark triad traits—narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy—relate to entrepreneurial passion. Our findings provide an invaluable extension of earlier works that have mainly focused on the role bright personality traits play for passion. We adopt a fuzzy set methodology to examine which configurations of the dark triad traits lead to the domains of entrepreneurial passion for inventing, founding, and developing. Our results provide evidence that entrepreneurs with high levels of Machiavellianism have passion for all three domains, while high levels of narcissism lead to passion for inventing and developing. In contrast, high levels of psychopathy lead to passion for inventing and founding. This study contributes to the passion and dark triad literature.

Suggested Citation

  • Vera Hedwig Schmidt, Corinna & Rössig, Sarah-Alena & Ruth, Martin & Christina Flatten, Tessa, 2025. "The bright side of a dark personality – How dark triad traits influence entrepreneurial passion," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:186:y:2025:i:c:s0148296324005484
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2024.115044
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