Internal R&D or external asset growth? A closer look at CEO narcissism and entrepreneurial orientation
International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research
ISSN: 1355-2554
Article publication date: 27 November 2023
Issue publication date: 3 January 2024
Abstract
Purpose
In today's competitive business environment, understanding how leadership traits shape outcomes is critical. Chief executive officer (CEO) narcissism, an intriguing and debated trait, raises questions about its impact on organisational behaviour, particularly regarding entrepreneurial orientation (EO). This study aims to examine how CEO narcissism affects EO, both as aggregate and specific measures, encompassing internal and external growth. It also considers the organisational context by examining how factors such as capital intensity, firm ownership and CEO duality moderate this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
To test the hypotheses, the authors used a sample of firms drawn from China's ChiNext database (2008–2017). After an initial screening, the final sample consists of 251 CEOs from 239 companies. Data on CEO narcissism are collected from the firm's official website and major online sources, whilst additional data are extracted from the WIND daabase. The authors use multiple regression and ordinary least squares (OLS) for data analysis.
Findings
The results show that CEO narcissism leads to external asset growth investments but not internal research and development (R&D). There is a positive relationship between CEO narcissism and EO as an aggregate measure and also different managerial discretions play varying roles in the relationship. Specifically, capital intensity weakens this relationship, but state ownership strengthens it.
Originality/value
This study helps to clarify the relationship between CEO narcissism and EO and advances the literature by showing that firms' EO actions may take various forms of innovation and venturing as new entry initiations of EO. The study findings have important implications for firms to capitalise on narcissistic CEOs' entrepreneurial tendencies, balance internal R&D and external asset growth and leverage various managerial discretions.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: This work was partly supported by the key project of National Social Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 22AGL019).
Credit author statement: Lin Yang: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Writing the original draft, review and editing, Funding acquisition. Zhibin Lin, Rose Quan, and James Cunningham: Conceptualization, Writing- reviewing and editing. Wei Huang: Formal analysis, Writing- reviewing and editing.
Citation
Yang, L., Lin, Z., Quan, R., Cunningham, J. and Huang, W. (2024), "Internal R&D or external asset growth? A closer look at CEO narcissism and entrepreneurial orientation", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 110-127. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-09-2022-0797
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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