The Dark Triad and Entrepreneurial Crowdfunding: A Comparison of Rewards-Based Vs Equity Campaigns

While a number of previous studies have examined how bright personality characteristics (e.g., optimism, self-efficacy, positive affect) influence entrepreneurs' ability to achieve their goals, much less attention has been given to how dark personality characteristics relate to the effectiveness of such persons. Drawing on life history and social exchange theories, we propose that narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism (i.e., the Dark Triad) are differentially associated with funding outcomes achieved based on the type of crowdfunding campaign (i.e., rewards-based versus equity-based). Our hypotheses were examined utilizing data from 324 crowdfunding campaigns, complied from a variety of online platforms. In general, dark personality characteristics were negatively associated with funding outcomes for entrepreneurs utilizing rewards-based crowdfunding (i.e., a communal context), and positively related to such outcomes for those engaging in equity-based campaigns (i.e., an agentic context). These findings add a contextualized perspective to the emerging literature on the effects of dark personality characteristics among entrepreneurs.