Abstract
Do narcissistic individuals have the potential to lead an entrepreneurial team to deliver high performance, and if so what might determine this potential? This study addresses narcissism, a controversially debated personality trait that has been found to be prevalent among entrepreneurs. Building on social- psychological theories, we argue that narcissistic individuals in an early stage entrepreneurial team positively affect business planning performance by enhancing the team’s entrepreneurial self-efficacy and the team’s entrepreneurial orientation. The study employs a longitudinal quasi- experimental design examining 66 entrepreneurship student teams. The results of the mediation analysis indicate the importance of narcissistic team members to business planning performance and contribute to the entrepreneurship literature by identifying a bright side of narcissism and shedding light on the mechanism that makes this positive effect possible.