Entrepreneurs as rulers? Insights from the relationship between social dominance orientation and entrepreneurial intention

Can individuals’ preference for social hierarchies and inequality affect their intention to pursue entrepreneurship? We surveyed university students in two countries and discovered that the answer may be context‐dependent. Findings suggest that the respondents’ views toward hierarchy and group‐based dominance in society, as indicated by social dominance orientation‐dominance (SDO‐D), is related to their Entrepreneurial Intentions (EI) for starting for‐profit companies. Perceived behavioral control (PBC) mediated the relationship between SDO‐D and EI, implying that higher SDO‐D influences people to think more positively about their own capabilities which in turn leads to higher EIs. These general patterns held in the U.S. sample. However, in South Korea's hierarchical society, respondents’ SDO‐D had little effect on EI as SDO‐D did not significantly affect PBC. Our findings suggest that individuals' SDO is an important and overlooked personality trait that may offer additional insights when added to models of EI.