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The article by Takacs-Haynes, Emich & Norder, published in the Academy of Management Annals, uses bibliometric methods to map the literature on GREED and Conceptualizing it in Business Research. 502 connected documents are analyzed, and the authors identify 10 distinct research communities spanning psychology, economics, political science, and management.
At the end of the day, the authors propose an integrated definition of greed as “the harmful self-interested pursuit of excessive material wealth“. Researchers found out how to organize communities into a multilevel framework and how greed emerges from individuals to groups, organizations, and societies. This is also the case with collective greed, in turn, constraining individual behavior.
To find out more about the paper, check the tabs below.
Greed: A Multilevel Interdisciplinary Review
Greed has been both lauded for driving economic growth and ostracized as the root cause of inequality and poverty. This bibliometric review identifies 10 research communities and integrates them into a multilevel framework.
Overview: The Greed Literature
The authors used Scopus to identify 2,367 documents with “greed” in title, abstract, or keywords (excluding “greedy algorithm”). After filtering for connected documents, 502 articles remained, forming a citation network analyzed with Gephi software.
Modularity score: 0.62 — indicating highly siloed communities with minimal cross-citation.
10 Major Research Communities
| Community | Docs | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Dispositional Greed | 70 | Individual trait, personality correlates, scale development |
| Psychoanalytic Greed | 17 | Unconscious origins, early childhood, self-esteem |
| Public Goods | 50 | Resource dilemmas, taking more than fair share |
| Constraints on Greed | 10 | Fairness and efficiency as competing motives |
| Financial Market Actors | 23 | Individual differences in market behavior |
| Intergroup Greed | 20 | Groups are greedier than individuals (discontinuity effect) |
| Organizational Greed | 41 | CEO greed, corporate greed, stakeholder effects |
| Moral Markets | 24 | Morality and economic behavior |
| Agent-Based Greed | 8 | Modeling greed and fear in markets |
| Civil War | 100 | Greed vs. grievance as cause of conflict |
Historical Context
- Ancient thought: Plato and Aristotle saw greed as causing moral failure and social decay
- Scottish Enlightenment: Mandeville’s “private vices, public benefits”; Smith distinguished self-interest from greed
- Industrial Revolution: Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth” — surplus wealth for public good
- 20th century: Friedman’s shareholder primacy doctrine severed moral considerations
Defining Greed: Acquisitiveness, Excess, Harm
“The harmful self-interested pursuit of excessive material wealth”
Three Core Dimensions
| Dimension | Description |
|---|---|
| Acquisitiveness | Intense and selfish desire for pursuit of resources; the “desire to acquire more and the dissatisfaction of never having enough” (Seuntjens et al., 2015) |
| Excess | Pursuit of “more than is needed” or “an unfairly excessive amount at the expense of others” (Cardella et al., 2019); violates distributive justice norms |
| Harm | Economic, social, or psychological costs borne by others; distinguishes greed from mere self-interest |
Distinguishing Greed from Self-Interest
- Self-interest: Adam Smith’s butcher, baker, brewer — mutually beneficial exchange within moral constraints
- Greed: Excessive acquisition that harms others; violates fairness and justice principles
Parts of Speech
- Greed (noun): The construct itself — desire for and pursuit of excessive material wealth
- Greedy (adjective): Modifies an actor or behavior — “greedy CEO”
- Greedily (adverb): Modifies desire or behavior
Individual-Level Greed
1. Dispositional Greed (70 docs)
- Definition: “The experience of desiring to acquire more and the dissatisfaction of never having enough”
- Correlates: Negative with emotional stability, agreeableness, empathy; positive with envy, impulsiveness, psychopathy, materialism
- Scales: Seuntjens et al. (2015), Mussel et al. (2015), Krekels & Pandelaere (2015)
- Outcomes: Unethical behavior, cheating, corruption, reduced life satisfaction
2. Psychoanalytic Greed (17 docs)
- Origins: Early childhood, deprivation, lack of safety; unconscious processes
- Mechanism: Acquisition substitutes for self-esteem, social status, pride
- Outcomes: Limited information processing, anxiety, envy, guilt, depression
3. Public Goods (50 docs)
- Greed as behavior: Taking more from common resource than contributing
- Antecedents: Social class (mixed evidence), task type, outcome certainty, partner behavior
- Findings: Greed increases when outcomes are certain; reciprocity drives greed; social identity matters
4. Constraints on Greed (10 docs)
- Competing motives: Efficiency and fairness constrain greed
- Evidence: People less greedy when motivated to avoid excess or harm
- Interventions: Reflecting on death or old age reduces greed
5. Financial Market Actors (23 docs)
- Definition: Pursuing objects disproportionate to their value
- Findings: Greed more likely when outcomes certain; white-collar crime linked to greed + opportunity
Key Takeaways: Individual Greed
- Negative psychological effects outweigh economic benefits
- Develops early (childhood environment, parenting)
- Current state and environment matter — reciprocity drives greed
- Natural tendency is toward cooperation unless greed seems certain to pay off
Collective & Multilevel Greed
Intergroup Greed (20 docs)
- Discontinuity effect: Groups are more competitive/greedy than individuals
- Mechanisms: Mutual support for self-interest, anonymity, diffusion of responsibility, out-group schema
Organizational Greed (41 docs)
- CEO greed: Negatively affects shareholder wealth, CSR, organizational resilience
- Perceptions of greed: Customers perceiving firm greed feel anger, seek revenge
- Greed contagion: Partner behavior influences own behavior more than perceptions
Moral Markets (24 docs)
- Morality affects economic behavior; markets require morality to thrive
- Greed occurs when seeking return greater than input, imposing costs on others
Agent-Based Greed (8 docs)
- Models greed/fear in markets using simulated agents
- Imbalance of “chartist” (greedy) traders leads to bubbles and crashes
Civil War (100 docs)
- “Rebel greed hypothesis”: Greed (resource capture) more important than grievance in causing civil war
- Feasibility (opportunity) may be stronger predictor than either
Emergent Greed: Bottom-Up Effects
- Reciprocity: Greedy partners increase own greed; “pay it forward” effect spreads greed
- Anonymity: Groups provide cover, reduce personal responsibility
- Social support: Members encourage greedy behavior, develop norms
- Social identity: “We’re in this together” — benefit collective even at out-group expense
- Rationalization: Self-interest framed as altruism for group-mates
- Relative contribution: CEOs, leaders have outsized influence
Greed as Context: Top-Down Effects
- Competitive collective greed: Members act greedily toward each other; politicking, sabotage
- Cooperative collective greed: Members cooperate internally to exploit outsiders; more insidious, more harmful overall
Future Research Directions
1. The Moral Nature of Greed
- How to measure excess and harm as matters of business ethics
- Distinguishing greed from self-interest in organizational settings
- Agency theory sidesteps harm — refocus on negative externalities
- Morality belongs in greed discourse; Pareto optimality requires fair initial distribution
2. The Multilevel Nature of Greed
- What factors lead to emergence of collective greed?
- Empathy, social comparison, impression management as antecedents
- How does greed spread through larger collectives (mimetic isomorphism)?
- Top-down effects: collective norms constrain individual behavior
- Can greed ever produce long-term positive outcomes? (open-minded inquiry needed)
3. Greed, Business, and Society
- Construct clarity for organizational greed — scope conditions across contexts
- Power dynamics: more powerful entities cause more harm
- Short-term gains vs. long-term costs (shareholder wealth vs. resilience)
- Societal impact: Do greedy organizations create greedy institutions, or vice versa?
- Institutional context: individualism, collectivism, legal systems, tax policy
- Do greedy organizations create a greedy institutional context through rent-seeking?
- Do institutions that allow unconstrained greed create greedy organizations?
- Do formal/informal institutions encourage or discourage institutionalization of greed?
- Will modern greedy societies decay like the city-states of Greek antiquity?
Summary Table: Greed Across Levels
| Level | Key Communities | Core Findings |
|---|---|---|
| Individual | Dispositional, Psychoanalytic, Public Goods, Constraints, Financial Actors | Negative psychological effects outweigh economic gains; develops early; reciprocity drives behavior |
| Group | Intergroup Greed | Groups greedier than individuals; anonymity, social support, identity |
| Organizational | Organizational Greed, Moral Markets | CEO greed harms shareholders, CSR, resilience; customer perceptions drive revenge |
| Market | Agent-Based Greed, Financial Markets | Greedy traders cause bubbles, crashes; moral markets require ethics |
| Societal | Civil War | Greed (resource capture) drives conflict more than grievance |
References
Takacs-Haynes, K., Emich, K., & Norder, K. (2026). Greed: A multilevel interdisciplinary review. Academy of Management Annals, 00(00), 1-44. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2024.0053
Key References from the Review:
- Seuntjens, T. G., Zeelenberg, M., van de Ven, N., & Breugelmans, S. M. (2015). Dispositional greed. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108(6), 917–933.
- Wang, L., & Murnighan, J. K. (2011). On greed. Academy of Management Annals, 5(1), 279–316.
- Takacs-Haynes, K., Campbell, J. T., & Hitt, M. A. (2017). When more is not enough: Executive greed and its influence on shareholder wealth. Journal of Management, 43(2), 555–584.
- Collier, P., & Hoeffler, A. (2004). Greed and grievance in civil war. Oxford Economic Papers, 56(4), 563–595.
- Wildschut, T., Pinter, B., Vevea, J. L., Insko, C. A., & Schopler, J. (2003). Beyond the group mind: A quantitative review of the interindividual-intergroup discontinuity effect. Psychological Bulletin, 129(5), 698–722.
Methodology: Bibliometric review using Scopus database (2,367 documents → 502 connected documents). Citation network analysis using Gephi software with modularity algorithm (Blondel et al., 2008). Modularity score: 0.62.
Acknowledgement: The authors thank Gary Ballinger for editorial guidance and two anonymous reviewers.
