Organizational Hubris in Entrepreneurial ICT Settings

The objective of this paper is to determine symptoms of organizational hubris in entrepreneurial ICT settings and to examine whether the environmental conditions of the ICT sector particularly trigger these symptoms. For this purpose, a theoretical framework is developed to transfer existing findings related to organizational hubris in large and established organizations to entrepreneurial ICT settings. The empirical analysis is based on an in-depth case study of an ICT Start-Up where five distinct symptoms of organizational hubris are determined. Moreover, the complex knowledge base required to exploit business ideas as well as crucial technological choices prior to market entry are identified as triggers of the ICT sector for the occurrence of organizational hubris. In addition to existing findings in literature, functional effects of organizational hubris such as general triggers to launch a business and sufficient selfconfidence to attract key partners are determined.