Give me uncertainty, and I will shine: CEO narcissism and corporate performance

CEO narcissism is an established fact in the corporate world. We argue that uncertainty moderates the relationship between CEO narcissism and corporate performance. Thus, we hypothesize that the decisiveness and craving for attention of the narcissistic CEO improve corporate performance during periods of high uncertainty, while these features of narcissism are not needed and indeed are disadvantageous during periods of low uncertainty. Our empirical results support our hypothesis. Our findings are important in understanding the context specificity of the advantages and disadvantages of CEO narcissism in an empirical corporate setting and thus important for CEO selection and CEO management.