IT’S ALL ABOUT… US? CEO NARCISSISM IN BUSINESS ECOSYSTEMS

20.11.2025 12:00 – 13:00

MANAGEMENT BROWN BAG SEMINAR

ABSTRACT

We theorize how CEO narcissism shapes a defining, meta-organizational phenomenon of the digital economy: business ecosystems. The fulcrum of our model is the novel concept of ecosystem oligarchization—the extent to which an elite stratum of privileged affiliates, with the ecosystem’s orchestrator acting as the “patron,” controls the ecosystem through strategies of wealth defense. We propose that oligarchization increases with the narcissism of the orchestrating firm’s CEO because the orchestrating CEO can obtain grandiose self-enhancement in exchange for oligarchic privilege, and because wealth defense is normal from the perspective of narcissistic dominance and antagonism. Furthermore, we argue that these mechanisms are reinforced as the orchestrating CEO’s narcissism triggers greater narcissistic participation—i.e., highly narcissistic affiliate CEOs and their firms engaging in the business ecosystem. As ecosystem oligarchization affects ecosystem value creation in an inverted U-shaped fashion, we conclude that the orchestrating CEO’s narcissism can ultimately enhance ecosystem value creation; however, this effect diminishes beyond a certain threshold, when the toxic interorganizational effects of CEO narcissism begin to undermine value creation. Our theorizing blends the psychology of narcissism, the sociology of oligarchy, and business ecosystem research into a “meta-echelons” perspective, conceptualizing how business ecosystems become reflections of the top executives involved.

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Bâtiment: Uni Mail

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Room M 3383, 3rd floor

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