Previous research on CEO narcissism and firm performance has shown mixed findings, this may because narcissism is a multi-facet personality with both desirable and undesirable manifestations. Based on upper echelon theory and the behavioral threshold theory of narcissism, this research proposes that CEO narcissism may have a curvilinear effect on narcissism, through the mediating role of strategic decision speed. Results from a multi-source (CEO, CFO, TMT members) and multi-wave (three times) survey showed that CEO narcissism has an inverted U-shaped effect on firm performance and strategic decision speed mediates this effect due to its inverted U-shaped effect on firm performance. Furthermore, when technological turbulence is high rather than low, those two curvilinear relationships became stronger versus lower. The theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.
