Narcissism, Cooperative Trust in R&D Cooperation, and Risk-Taking

The aim of this study is to investigate how CEOs’ narcissism influences their trust in their counterparts and risk-taking in joint R&D projects under different equity allocations. Using an experimental design and a sample of 80 participants, we find that the high-narcissism participants have less trust in their counterparts but are more likely to invest in joint research and development (R&D) projects under either high or equity allocation owing to their narcissistic personalities. This suggests that highly narcissistic participants are more likely to take risks in R&D cooperation. The results of our study imply that individuals’ narcissism poses a serious threat to R&D cooperation and business resources. Data Availability: The experiment data and material are available from the authors.