U. Ca' Foscari of Venice - Dept. of Management, Italy
We investigate the role of private business owner-managers’ entrepreneurial visions in their exit negotiations. In particular, we use psychological ownership theory to explain why owner-managers may be dismissive towards potential buyers whose ideas for the future of the firm do not align with their own entrepreneurial vision, and thereby risk compromising their chances of making a successful exit. A preregistered scenario-based experiment with 205 US small business owner-managers supports a causal effect of owner-buyer vision misalignment on multiple key decisions made by owner-managers in the exit negotiation process. This effect is stronger (weaker) for owner-managers’ with high levels of legacy orientation (narcissism).
