DARK TRIAD TRAITS AND ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTIONS AMONG BUSINESS STUDENTS: THE ROLES OF OPPORTUNITY RECOGNITION AND LOCUS OF CONTROL

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between Dark Triad personality traits (Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism) and entrepreneurial intentions among undergraduate business students in Pakistan. Specifically, it replicates and extends the model developed by Le et al. (2022) in a culturally distinct context, addressing a gap in cross-cultural entrepreneurship research: prior tests of this model have been limited to East Asian samples, and its generalizability to South Asian, collectivist-majority environments remains unexamined. Data were collected from 113 BBA students at a leading business institution in Karachi using a cross-sectional survey design supplemented by two focus group sessions. Mediation and moderation analyses were conducted using the PROCESS macro in SPSS. Results indicate that opportunity recognition fully mediates the relationship between each of the three Dark Triad traits and entrepreneurial intentions, extending full mediation where the original study found only partial mediation for narcissism. The moderating role of locus of control on the opportunity recognition-intention link was not supported, suggesting that structural and institutional factors in the Pakistani context may attenuate the effect of personal control orientation. Findings contribute to personality-based entrepreneurship theory, advance understanding of culturally contingent boundary conditions in the Dark Triad-entrepreneurship nexus, and carry practical implications for business schools seeking to cultivate entrepreneurial intention through targeted opportunity recognition interventions.