It's my business! The influence of psychological ownership on entrepreneurial intentions and work performance

Alexander B. Hamrick*, Sarah Burrows, Jacob A. Waddingham, Craig D. Crossley

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Extant scholarship on psychological ownership has primarily focused on the organizational benefits that come from fostering employees' feelings of ownership without having to relinquish ties to actual ownership. It is unclear, however, if feeling like an owner is sufficient to satisfy employees' aspirational ownership intentions. By applying self-verification theory to psychological ownership theory, we investigate how employees' psychological ownership influences their views about being a competent business owner, and the potential double-edged implications for organizations as a result of these self-views. Utilizing two separate studies, we find that psychological ownership is positively associated with entrepreneurial self-efficacy, which, in turn, is positively associated with both entrepreneurial intentions and work performance. Furthermore, results show that employees' past work performance strengthens the positive relationship between psychological ownership and entrepreneurial self-efficacy and the positive indirect relationship between psychological ownership and entrepreneurial intentions through entrepreneurial self-efficacy. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of fostering psychological ownership with current employees to glean the benefits and negate any potential drawbacks, such as high performers leaving the organization to start their own business.

Original languageEnglish
Peer-reviewed scientific journalJournal of Organizational Behavior
Volume45
Issue number8
Pages (from-to)1208-1230
Number of pages23
ISSN0894-3796
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 27.06.2024
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article - refereed

Keywords

  • 512 Business and Management
  • entrepreneurial intentions
  • entrepreneurial self-efficacy
  • psychological ownership
  • self-verification theory
  • work performance

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