IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/asiapa/v42y2025i1d10.1007_s10490-023-09934-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The double-edged sword of narcissism: influences of university students’ grandiose and vulnerable narcissism on entrepreneurial intention

Author

Listed:
  • Tingko Lee

    (Management College National Defense University)

  • Chih-Hsing Liu

    (National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology
    Ming Chuan University)

  • Bernard Gan

    (Griffith University)

  • Cheng-Kuei Yang

    (Quanta Computer Inc)

Abstract

While narcissism provides an essential understanding of entrepreneurial intention, the connections between grandiose narcissism and entrepreneurial intention and between vulnerable narcissism and entrepreneurial intention in college students remain unclear. To address this issue, this study employed regulatory focus theory to elucidate the psychological process and condition under which narcissism either promotes or inhibits subsequent entrepreneurial intention. In Study 1, we considered promotion and prevention focus as the mediating mechanism between narcissism and entrepreneurial intention. Questionnaires were distributed three times, each with a 30-day interval. Results of 531 college students from Taiwan indicated that grandiose narcissism positively predicts entrepreneurial intention via promotion focus, and vulnerable narcissism negatively predicts entrepreneurial intention via prevention focus. Study 2 considered whether entrepreneurship education programmes (EEPs) played a moderating role. Based on a sample of 231 Australian college students, the findings revealed that perceiving high-quality EEPs can increase the positive impact of promotion focus on entrepreneurial intention. Additionally, these EEPs helped mitigate the adverse impact of prevention focus on entrepreneurial intention. Finally, grandiose narcissism positively predicts entrepreneurial intention via promotion focus, particularly when students perceive that they are educated in high-quality EEPs. Vulnerable narcissism negatively predicts entrepreneurial intention via prevention focus when students are educated in high-quality EEPs. This study offers crucial theoretical insights, managerial implications, and suggestions for future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Tingko Lee & Chih-Hsing Liu & Bernard Gan & Cheng-Kuei Yang, 2025. "The double-edged sword of narcissism: influences of university students’ grandiose and vulnerable narcissism on entrepreneurial intention," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 333-369, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:asiapa:v:42:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s10490-023-09934-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s10490-023-09934-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10490-023-09934-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10490-023-09934-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Keith M. Hmieleski & Daniel A. Lerner, 2016. "The Dark Triad and Nascent Entrepreneurship: An Examination of Unproductive versus Productive Entrepreneurial Motives," Journal of Small Business Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(S1), pages 7-32, October.
    2. Lee, Craig & Hallak, Rob, 2018. "Investigating the moderating role of education on a structural model of restaurant performance using multi-group PLS-SEM analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 298-305.
    3. Brownell, Katrina M. & McMullen, Jeffery S. & O'Boyle, Ernest H., 2021. "Fatal attraction: A systematic review and research agenda of the dark triad in entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(3).
    4. Brockner, Joel & Higgins, E. Tory & Low, Murray B., 2004. "Regulatory focus theory and the entrepreneurial process," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 203-220, March.
    5. Alex Maritz & Dennis Foley, 2018. "Expanding Australian Indigenous Entrepreneurship Education Ecosystems," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-14, June.
    6. Danny Miller & Peter H. Friesen, 1982. "Innovation in conservative and entrepreneurial firms: Two models of strategic momentum," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(1), pages 1-25, January.
    7. Colin Donaldson, 2019. "Intentions resurrected: a systematic review of entrepreneurial intention research from 2014 to 2018 and future research agenda," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 953-975, September.
    8. Martin, Bruce C. & McNally, Jeffrey J. & Kay, Michael J., 2013. "Examining the formation of human capital in entrepreneurship: A meta-analysis of entrepreneurship education outcomes," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 211-224.
    9. Jing Chen & Zhe Zhang & Ming Jia, 2021. "How CEO narcissism affects corporate social responsibility choice?," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 897-924, September.
    10. Francisco Linan & Alain Fayolle, 2015. "A systematic literature review on entrepreneurial intentions : citation, thematic analyses, and research agenda," Post-Print hal-02313298, HAL.
    11. Tang, Jintong & Kacmar, K. Michele (Micki) & Busenitz, Lowell, 2012. "Entrepreneurial alertness in the pursuit of new opportunities," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 77-94.
    12. Raijman, Rebeca, 2001. "Determinants of entrepreneurial intentions: Mexican immigrants in Chicago," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 393-411.
    13. Margarethe F. Wiersema & Harry P. Bowen, 2008. "Corporate diversification: the impact of foreign competition, industry globalization, and product diversification," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 115-132, February.
    14. Witt, Michael A. & Li, Peter Ping & Välikangas, Liisa & Lewin, Arie Y., 2021. "De-globalization and Decoupling: Game Changing Consequences?," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(1), pages 6-15, February.
    15. Natalie Brüne & Eva Lutz, 2020. "The effect of entrepreneurship education in schools on entrepreneurial outcomes: a systematic review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 70(2), pages 275-305, May.
    16. Chen, Chao C. & Greene, Patricia Gene & Crick, Ann, 1998. "Does entrepreneurial self-efficacy distinguish entrepreneurs from managers?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 295-316, July.
    17. Souitaris, Vangelis & Zerbinati, Stefania & Al-Laham, Andreas, 2007. "Do entrepreneurship programmes raise entrepreneurial intention of science and engineering students? The effect of learning, inspiration and resources," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 566-591, July.
    18. Montserrat Entrialgo & Víctor Iglesias, 2016. "The moderating role of entrepreneurship education on the antecedents of entrepreneurial intention," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 1209-1232, December.
    19. Tumasjan, Andranik & Braun, Reiner, 2012. "In the eye of the beholder: How regulatory focus and self-efficacy interact in influencing opportunity recognition," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 622-636.
    20. Saeid Karimi & Harm J. A. Biemans & Thomas Lans & Mohammad Chizari & Martin Mulder, 2016. "The Impact of Entrepreneurship Education: A Study of Iranian Students' Entrepreneurial Intentions and Opportunity Identification," Journal of Small Business Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(1), pages 187-209, January.
    21. Leung, Yik Kiu & Franken, Ingmar & Thurik, Roy & Driessen, Martijn & Kamei, Katsuyuki & Torrès, Olivier & Verheul, Ingrid, 2021. "Narcissism and entrepreneurship: Evidence from six datasets," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 15(C).
    22. Liu, Yiran & Li, Yong & Hao, Xiling & Zhang, Yuli, 2019. "Narcissism and learning from entrepreneurial failure," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 496-512.
    23. Panagiotis Piperopoulos & Dimo Dimov, 2015. "Burst Bubbles or Build Steam? Entrepreneurship Education, Entrepreneurial Self‐Efficacy, and Entrepreneurial Intentions," Journal of Small Business Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(4), pages 970-985, October.
    24. Urs Baldegger & Steffen H. Schroeder & Marco R. Furtner, 2017. "The self-loving entrepreneur: dual narcissism and entrepreneurial intention," International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 9(4), pages 373-391.
    25. Zhongfeng Su, 2021. "The co-evolution of institutions and entrepreneurship," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 38(4), pages 1327-1350, December.
    26. Covin, Jeffrey G. & Rigtering, J.P. Coen & Hughes, Mathew & Kraus, Sascha & Cheng, Cheng-Feng & Bouncken, Ricarda B., 2020. "Individual and team entrepreneurial orientation: Scale development and configurations for success," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 1-12.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Juan-José Nájera-Sánchez & Cristina Pérez-Pérez & Thais González-Torres, 2023. "Exploring the knowledge structure of entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 563-597, June.
    2. Rahul Yadav & Safal Batra, 2023. "Does Narcissism Influence Entrepreneurial Intentions? A Theory of Planned Behaviour Perspective," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 32(2), pages 449-478, July.
    3. Galina Shirokova & Nailya Galieva & Joshua V. White & Diana Doktorova, 2024. "Narcissism, workaholism, family support and new venture performance: a moderated mediation model," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 63(1), pages 379-419, June.
    4. Meqbel M. Aliedan & Ibrahim A. Elshaer & Mansour A. Alyahya & Abu Elnasr E. Sobaih, 2022. "Influences of University Education Support on Entrepreneurship Orientation and Entrepreneurship Intention: Application of Theory of Planned Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-18, October.
    5. Hoang, Giang & Luu, Tuan Trong & Le, Thuy Thu Thi & Tran, Anh Kim Thi, 2022. "Dark Triad traits affecting entrepreneurial intentions: The roles of opportunity recognition and locus of control," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    6. Soumaya Meddeb & Étienne St-Jean & Andreas Rauch, 2024. "The interaction of narcissism, agreeableness and conscientiousness in entrepreneurial mentoring: Implications for learning outcomes," Post-Print hal-04701307, HAL.
    7. Laura Padilla-Angulo & René Díaz-Pichardo & Antonio Luis Leal-Rodríguez, 2023. "Are different entrepreneurship-promotion activities equally effective? an analysis by academic year and gender," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 1-25, March.
    8. Cristina Armuña & Sergio Ramos & Jesús Juan & Claudio Feijóo & Alberto Arenal, 2020. "From stand-up to start-up: exploring entrepreneurship competences and STEM women’s intention," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 69-92, March.
    9. Bohlayer, Carina & Gielnik, Michael M., 2023. "(S)training experiences: Toward understanding decreases in entrepreneurial self-efficacy during action-oriented entrepreneurship training," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 38(1).
    10. Ying-Kai Liao & Vu Huu Anh Nguyen & Andrea Caputo, 2022. "Unveiling the role of entrepreneurial knowledge and cognition as antecedents of entrepreneurial intention: a meta-analytic study," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 1623-1652, December.
    11. Gil Pechuán Ignacio & Conesa García M. Pilar & Tejedor Miralles Enrique, 2024. "Impact of the sense of initiative and entrepreneurship competence on the entrepreneurial intention," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 2515-2539, December.
    12. Mariacarmela Passarelli & Giuseppe Bongiorno, 2025. "Is it the time to reshape entrepreneurship education? State-of-the-art and further perspectives," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 1-35, December.
    13. Ratan J. S. Dheer & Aycan Kara, 2024. "Immigrants’ entrepreneurial intentions: acculturation-based socio-psychological lens," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 2979-2999, December.
    14. Dafna Kariv & Carlo Giglio & Vincenzo Corvello, 2025. "Fostering Entrepreneurial intentions: exploring the interplay of education and endogenous factors," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 1-27, December.
    15. Anca-Otilia Dodescu & Elena-Aurelia Botezat & Alexandru Constăngioară & Ioana-Crina Pop-Cohuţ, 2021. "A Partial Least-Square Mediation Analysis of the Contribution of Cross-Campus Entrepreneurship Education to Students’ Entrepreneurial Intentions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-26, August.
    16. Rajib Roy & Fatima Akhtar & Niladri Das, 2017. "Entrepreneurial intention among science & technology students in India: extending the theory of planned behavior," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 1013-1041, December.
    17. Cephas Tetteh & Misagh Tasavori & Charan R. Bhattarai & Reza Zaefarian & Tazeeb Rajwani, 2024. "How do environmental factors shape entrepreneurial intention? A review and future research," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 2955-2977, December.
    18. Elert, Niklas & Sjöö, Karolin & Wennberg, Karl, 2020. "When Less Is More: Why Limited Entrepreneurship Education May Result in Better Entrepreneurial Outcomes," Working Paper Series 1322, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    19. Maria Claudia Angel Ferrero & Véronique Bessière, 2016. "From Lab to Venture: Cognitive Factors Influencing Researchers' Decision to Start a Venture," Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 24(02), pages 101-131, June.
    20. Tantawy, Maha & Herbert, Kendall & McNally, Jeffrey J. & Mengel, Thomas & Piperopoulos, Panagiotis & Foord, David, 2021. "Bringing creativity back to entrepreneurship education: Creative self-efficacy, creative process engagement, and entrepreneurial intentions," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 15(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:asiapa:v:42:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s10490-023-09934-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.