Title: Who are destructive entrepreneurs, what do they do, and what kind of damage do they cause? A thematic analysis

Authors: Farhad Feizi

Addresses: Institute of Management, Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Piazza Martiri della Libertà, 24, 56127, Pisa, Italy; Institute of Sociology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Karl-Glöckner-Str. 21E 35394, Gießen, Germany

Abstract: Three decades after Baumol's (1990) seminal paper, 'Entrepreneurship: productive, unproductive, and destructive', we still know little about the last type. However, the growing number of value-destroying activities in the business world has prompted scholars in recent years to bring this topic to the forefront and ask why, how, and to what extent entrepreneurs act against others. As an essential tool for further theorisation, we conducted a mechanism-based thematic analysis of the existing literature, investigating micro-level reasons that motivate entrepreneurs to act intentionally against others, the behaviours they employ, and the resulting outcomes. This analysis identified egoism and a control-freak mindset as the most discussed personality dispositions driving entrepreneurs to act destructively, with tyrannical management and corrupt practices as the most frequent damaging behaviours, and a wide range of organisational and social damages as their consequences.

Keywords: critical entrepreneurship studies; destructive entrepreneurship; mechanism-based synthesis; thematic analysis.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEV.2025.151023

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing, 2025 Vol.17 No.2, pp.225 - 247

Accepted: 14 Oct 2025
Published online: 09 Jan 2026 *

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