Who are destructive entrepreneurs, what do they do, and what kind of damage do they cause A thematic analysis

Farhad Feizi

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing2025https://doi.org/10.1504/ijev.2025.151023article
AJG 1
Weight
0.50

What the paper says

Three decades after Baumol's (1990) seminal paper, 'Entrepreneurship: productive, unproductive, and destructive', we still know little about the last type. However, the growing number of value-destroying activities in the business world has prompted scholars in recent years to bring this topic to the forefront and ask why, how, and to what extent entrepreneurs act against others. As an essential tool for further theorisation, we conducted a mechanism-based thematic analysis of the existing literature, investigating micro-level reasons that motivate entrepreneurs to act intentionally against others, the behaviours they employ, and the resulting outcomes. This analysis identified egoism and a control-freak mindset as the most discussed personality dispositions driving entrepreneurs to act destructively, with tyrannical management and corrupt practices as the most frequent damaging behaviours, and a wide range of organisational and social damages as their consequences.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1504/ijev.2025.151023

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@article{farhad2025,
  title        = {{Who are destructive entrepreneurs, what do they do, and what kind of damage do they cause A thematic analysis}},
  author       = {Farhad Feizi},
  journal      = {International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1504/ijev.2025.151023},
}

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.