Greed is a trait that causes people to be dissatisfied with what they currently have and to always want more. Entrepreneurs are often portrayed as greedy people who try to satisfy their desires through their venturing activities. In this paper, we examine whether greed relates to explorative behavior. Explorative behavior is about searching for new opportunities and holds the chance for major improvements. We further investigate when entrepreneurs high in greed show greedy behavior. Based on a sample of 234 entrepreneurs from 112 teams, we show that the impact of entrepreneurial greed on explorative behavior depends on the current situation, precisely the situational strength. Entrepreneurial greed positively impacts explorative behavior only in weak situations – situations with low certainty for the individual and low psychological pressure to behave in a certain way.
