“The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”? The influence of dark triad personality traits on formation of entrepreneurial intentions

Abstract

This article examines the influence of the “dark triad” personality traits — narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy — on the development of entrepreneurial intentions through the prism of the theory of planned behavior. The theory explains entrepreneurial intentions formation trough emergence and development of the attitude towards entrepreneurship, relevant subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. These personality traits are considered in the study in their non-clinical manifestations. The proposed theoretical model has been tested on a sample of 191 students and graduates from 13 Russian universities. The empirical data were collected through an online survey. The analysis was carried out with OLS estimation. To assess the mediation effects, the PROCESS macro for the SPSS data analysis package was employed. The study identifies the key role of narcissism as an antecedent of intention to start one’s own business, while the main element of the theory of planned behavior mediating psychological effects is the attitude towards entrepreneurship. In addition, a negative relationship between psychopathy and subjective norms as well as perceived behavioral control has been established. With this study, we contribute to the theory of personality traits in the context of entrepreneurship and expand knowledge about the role of negatively perceived individual psychological characteristics in the entrepreneurial process. In addition, this work details the theory of planned behavior in terms of identifying possible antecedents of attitudes towards entrepreneurship, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. The results of this study can be used by entrepreneurship educators, especially in courses and trainings on the psychology of entrepreneurship.