The existing entrepreneurship research indicates that personality traits profoundly impact individuals' intentions to embark upon an entrepreneurial career and the behavioral initiatives for startup activities. Deviating from the mainstream research that focuses on progressive and positive personality traits, this paper aims to explore an under-researched topic, namely the relationship between the dark triad personality and social entrepreneurship intentions. Dark triad personality, which consists of machiavellianism, psychopathy and narcissism, has been found to stimulate individuals' passion for entrepreneurship and competitiveness in the new venture process. Although the egocentric nature of the dark triad personality is seemingly unrelated (or even opposite) to benevolence-driven entrepreneurship, our study challenges the conventional assumptions by identifying the cognitive process and motivational condition that explain the dark triad individuals' social entrepreneurial intentions. Through testing on a sample of 402 participants in Thailand and Taiwan, we found that dark triad personality indeed has a direct negative effect on social entrepreneurial intentions. However, dark triad personality may indirectly enhance social entrepreneurship through the mediating effect of entrepreneurial alertness and entrepreneurial passion. More interestingly, the dark triad personality's inhibitor role in social entrepreneurial intention turns into a motivator when the individuals perceive there is utilitarian value involved in their entrepreneurial initiative. Findings of this paper shed new light on the dark triad-entrepreneurship relationship and explore a promising avenue for future entrepreneurship research.

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