Entrepreneurial Narcissism in Smart Cities: The Moderating Role of Bonding and Bridging Social Capital

The process of digitization over the years has increasingly taken hold in various areas of our daily lives. When talking about digitization, it is impossible not to talk about smart cities as the two phenomena are linked. Smart cities are supported by digitalization and technological innovations leading to future environmental, social, and financial benefits. The result of digitization in smart cities can be measured by the increase in the quality of life of citizens thus providing a return on the investments made. Digital transformation has enabled smart cities to gain knowledge and understanding of critical issues thus obtaining a competitive advantage over non-digitalized cities. In this paper, we consider the impact of people at the city level focusing on the importance of entrepreneurs’ personality traits. Entrepreneurs, through their activity and thanks to their charisma, can bring innovations to the territory. Among the personality traits studied in the literature, we focus on narcissism, considering the positive and negative aspects of this personality trait. Moreover, we also focus on social capital positively influences innovative acquisitions, the geographical location of the entrepreneur is a key factor, that characterizes the performance of the innovative entrepreneurial activity.