Publication
Title
Exploiting opportunities at all costs? Entrepreneurial intent and externalities
Author
Abstract
Do potential entrepreneurs exploit welfare-destroying opportunities as much as they exploit welfare-enhancing opportunities as it is assumed in several normative models? Do we need to prevent potential entrepreneurs from being destructive or are there intrinsic limits to harm others? We experimentally investigate how people with different entrepreneurial intent exploit risky investment opportunities that are associated with negative and positive externalities. We find that participants who consider entrepreneurship as a future occupation invest significantly less than others in destructive opportunities. Nevertheless, our results support prior evidence that the entrepreneurially talented invest more in destructive opportunities. The latter effect seems to be entrepreneurship-specific, because the investment behavior of the generally more talented does not differ from that of other participants. Taken together, our results suggest that people who are willing to exploit destructive opportunities do not only do this in private ventures, but also and maybe even more so in wage employment.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Journal of economic psychology. - Amsterdam, 1981, currens
Publication
Amsterdam : 2012
ISSN
0167-4870 [print]
1872-7719 [online]
DOI
10.1016/J.JOEP.2011.03.003
Volume/pages
33 :2 (2012) , p. 379-393
ISI
000301829900006
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 30.03.2011
Last edited 09.10.2023
To cite this reference