We are happy to share that our article “I Make My Own Rules: The Role of Rule-Breaking and Ethics in Driving Entrepreneurial Intentions” has been published in the prestigious Journal of Small Business Management.

Abstract: 

At times, individuals break rules in pursuit of greater good for themselves or their communities. For such individuals, entrepreneurship—marked by creative disruption—can represent an especially appealing career path. Building on the virtue-based model of rule-breaking, we hypothesize that rule-breaking tendencies positively predict entrepreneurial intentions and involvement. We further propose that this relationship weakens among individuals high in idealism, who tend to view rules as universally valid and are thus less likely to perceive gaps in existing systems as entrepreneurial opportunities. Two studies tested these hypotheses: Study 1 employed a computerized laboratory task to assess general rule-breaking behavior, minimizing biases related to social desirability, rule perceptions, and examined its link to entrepreneurial intentions. Study 2 adopted a contextualized approach, analyzing how entrepreneurial prosocial rule-breaking relates to both future entrepreneurial intentions and current entrepreneurial involvement among working adults, including entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs. Across both studies, findings consistently demonstrate that rule-breaking tendencies foster entrepreneurial outcomes, with idealism serving as a boundary condition. This research introduces a novel methodological framework and advances understanding of the ethical antecedents of entrepreneurship.

Keywords: rule-breaking, idealism, entrepreneurial intention, individual antecedents.

The full article is available open access at: https://doi.org/10.1080/00472778.2025.2509910