The Good, the Bad, and the Talented: Entrepreneurial Talent and Selfish Behavior

Utz Weitzel, Diemo Urbig, Sameeksha Desai, Mark Sanders and Zoltan Acs
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Sameeksha Desai: Max Planck Institute of Economics - Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Institute for Development Strategies - Institute for Development Strategies

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Abstract: Talent allocation models assume that entrepreneurially talented people are selfish and thus allocate into unproductive or even destructive activities if these offer the highest private returns. This paper experimentally analyzes selfish preferences of the entrepreneurially talented. We find that making a distinction between talent and talent explains systematic differences in selfish behavior. Generally, both the less business talented and the more creative are more willing to forego private payoffs to avoid losses to others. A moderator analysis reveals that less creative individuals with business talent are significantly more selfish than all others, including the creative with business talent. This finding applies to both certain and risky payoffs with and without negative externalities. The paper makes a contribution to entrepreneurship research by qualifying the implications of talent allocation models and highlighting the importance of distinguishing between the two types of entrepreneurial talent. We also add to the field of experimental economics by advancing research on altruism under risk and with negative externalities.

Keywords: C91 -Laboratory; Individual Behavior; D62 -Externalities; D64 -Altruism; L26 -Entrepreneurship; selfishness; altruism; fairness; benevolence; inequity aversion; dictator game; entrepreneurship; talent; creativity; experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-09-02
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-00856604v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

Published in Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2010, 76 (1), pp.64. ⟨10.1016/j.jebo.2010.02.013⟩

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Related works:
Chapter: The good, the bad, and the talented: Entrepreneurial talent and selfish behavior (2015)
Journal Article: The good, the bad, and the talented: Entrepreneurial talent and selfish behavior (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00856604

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2010.02.013

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