IN OR OUT: NARCISSISM AND ENTREPRENEURIAL SELF-EFFICACY AND INTRAPRENEURIAL INTENTIONS

We suggest that examining intrapreneurial intentions through the lens of motivation can provide insight into why individuals with valuable entrepreneurial skills would choose to apply those skills inside organizations as intrapreneurs. In particular, we examine whether two variables, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and narcissism, motivate intrapreneurial intentions. In a study of 221 working professionals, we draw on expectancy theories of motivation and personality research to specify and test a model in which entrepreneurial self-efficacy and narcissism independently motivate intrapreneurial intentions, but that these variables interact such that when both entrepreneurial self-efficacy and narcissism are high, intrapreneurial intentions are diminished. We suggest that the reversal in the direction of the interaction is explained by how the self-focused, self-centered nature of narcissism influences motivation.