MARKET SCENARIOS AND START-UP'S PATENTING: THE MODERATOR ROLE OF ENTREPRENEURS' NARCISSISM

Entrepreneurs' personality traits determine how external information, condition, and stimuli are filtered, interpreted, and incorporated into a decision. This paper investigates the role of entrepreneurs' narcissism showing that this personality trait moderates the relationship between market concentration or market dynamism and start-ups' patenting. Empirically, we analyse a cross-industry sample of 195 start-ups' entrepreneur. Our proposed model is based on survey and archival data. We show that market concentration and market dynamism affect start-up patenting. In particular, we find that market concentration has a positive impact on start-up's patenting propensity, and that entrepreneur narcissism moderates the hypothesised relationship by amplifying, in case of market concentration, and by weakening, in case of market dynamism, the effects on start-up's patenting of the two market scenarios.