What our new research reveals about the CEOs who drive firm internationalization

There is a persistent assumption in leadership research that the most effective executives share broadly positive traits: conscientious, agreeable, emotionally stable. But what if some of the most consequential drivers of firm behavior lie precisely where we least like to look?

A study recently published in the International Business Review, co-authored with colleagues at Maynooth University and Victoria University of Wellington, takes that question seriously. We examine whether CEOs who score high on what psychologists call the “dark triad” of personality, comprising narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy, are more likely to lead their firms into international markets, and why.

The dark triad: not just a liability

The dark triad captures three overlapping but distinct personality profiles. Narcissists display grandiosity, a need for recognition, and an intense drive for dominance. Machiavellians are strategic, calculating, and willing to manipulate to achieve their goals. Psychopaths are impulsive, low on empathy, and drawn to risk. These traits carry obvious costs in organizational life: bullying, unethical conduct, and poor interpersonal dynamics are well-documented correlates.

But the picture is more complicated than a simple moral ledger. Research across entrepreneurship and management has increasingly documented the upside. Individuals high on the dark triad are more likely to recognize opportunities, less deterred by uncertainty, and more willing to make bold, unconventional decisions. Our study extends this logic to international business, asking whether these same qualities translate into a propensity for internationalization at the firm level.

What we found

Drawing on data from 405 small and medium-sized firms in the United Kingdom and United States, we find that CEO dark triad personality is positively associated with the degree to which their firms pursue international markets. The mechanism, however, is not simply that dark triad CEOs take bigger swings. What appears to matter is that these leaders cultivate what the strategy literature calls organizational ambidexterity: the firm’s capacity to simultaneously exploit existing strengths while exploring new opportunities.

Ambidexterity, we argue, is exactly the kind of capability that dark triad CEOs are well-positioned to foster. Their appetite for short-term gain pushes exploitative refinement, while their relentless pursuit of status and dominance fuels exploratory risk-taking. Together, these translate into a balanced, forward-moving organizational posture that supports international expansion. Ambidexterity partially mediates the relationship between CEO personality and internationalization, meaning the personality effect operates both through this firm-level capability and through direct strategic choices at the top.

Why this matters

For decades, international business research has focused on what CEOs know and who they know: international experience, social networks, institutional knowledge. Our study draws attention to who they are. Personality is not merely a demographic variable to be controlled away; it shapes the strategic frame through which leaders perceive, interpret, and act upon opportunities in foreign markets.

This has practical implications for boards, investors, and governance structures. A CEO with dark triad characteristics may accelerate internationalization in ways that generate genuine competitive value, particularly in resource-constrained SMEs where the personality of a single leader has outsized organizational influence. At the same time, these traits carry real risks that governance structures need to account for. The question is not whether to avoid such leaders entirely, but how to channel their tendencies productively and build in the institutional checks that prevent the same boldness from becoming recklessness.

The findings also open up a richer research agenda. Future work might examine whether these effects vary across cultural or institutional contexts, how dark triad leadership interacts with team composition, and whether different combinations of the three traits produce different internationalization pathways.

Going global is never purely a strategic calculation. At the executive level, personality is very much part of the equation.

Interested? Read more:

Nooshabadi, J.E., Mockaitis, A.I., & Chugh, R. (2024). Chief executive officer’s dark triad personality and firm’s degree of internationalization: The mediating role of ambidexterity. International Business Review. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2024.102296