Abstract
Having an inflated sense of self and wanting to have that self-view continually reinforced, narcissistic CEOs are interesting characters and can be formidable rivals in interfirm competitions. Extending prior research on CEO narcissism, we investigate how firms with narcissistic CEOs engage in competitive actions. Using videometric survey methodology on 185 Fortune 500 CEOs from the years 2000—2017, we find that narcissistic CEOs tend to take on industry leaders by entering into the leaders’ markets and competing more aggressively with higher volume of actions than the leaders. We also investigate how managerial discretion may moderate the effect of CEO narcissism on aggressive competitive actions toward industry leaders and find that narcissistic CEOs’ aggressive competitive actions are not constrained by certain factors that are expected to reduce managerial discretion. Our findings contribute to CEO narcissism, upper echelon, and competitive dynamics research.
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