Business media narratives often present a predominantly positive depiction of entrepreneurial success, emphasizing cutting-edge innovation and far-reaching vision. This is evident in emergence of celebrity entrepreneurs as modern-day heroes, epitomizing societal values of self-driven ingenuity. What such depictions omit however is the track record of predation that can often be detected in these entrepreneurs’ actions over time, which also hold relevance in explaining their success. In response to this and informed by relevant literatures in both business and biology, we develop a conceptualization of entrepreneurial predation, and identify a typology, which includes predatory behaviors, predatory strategy, predatory position, predatory ideology, and preying on public resources as a distinct target. We illustrate this with examples from five prominent Western celebrity entrepreneurs – Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Elon Musk (before his acquisition of Twitter), Xavier Niel and Mark Zuckerberg – and reflect on wider consequences and risks associated with the normalization of entrepreneurial predation.
