The interaction of narcissism, agreeableness and conscientiousness in entrepreneurial mentoring: Implications for learning outcomes

Abstract

The personality configuration of mentors and mentees is important in understanding mentoring outcomes. While the best mentors appear to have higher degrees of agreeableness and conscientiousness, entrepreneurs generally score lower on agreeableness and have higher degrees of narcissism, a personality trait that could be detrimental to mentoring. We investigated the interaction of narcissism with two traits from the Big Five Inventory, namely agreeableness and conscientiousness, to see how this interaction influenced learning from the relationship of mentee entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest that mentee narcissism negatively influences learning, and mentor agreeableness mitigates the negative effects on mentee learning. These findings show certain beneficial personality configurations in entrepreneurial mentoring and provide elements to consider in managerial practice when pairing mentors and mentees in this context.