Our purpose in this paper is to provide a comprehensive examination of recent research into individual differences in order to better understand the future promise of self-leadership as a concept and a research subject for entrepreneurship. We briefly present a description of self-leadership research and then proceed to describe and contrast the self-leadership concept relative to other related motivational and self-influence constructs including: optimism, happiness, psychological flow, consciousness, personality models, self-monitoring, the need for autonomy, emotional intelligence, and diversity factors including age, gender, and cultural differences, and the worklife interface. We relate these concepts to entrepreneurship, and conclude with suggestions for future research on the relationships between self-leadership, individual differences, and entrepreneurship.

We examine the various components of entrepreneurial self-efficacy within the entrepreneurship literature from a measurement perspective. Two published entrepreneurial self-efficacy instruments are tested and compared. Additionally, we study how self-efficacy relates with many of the tasks and roles identified within the entrepreneurial new venture life-cycle. Our study suggests relationships between self-efficacy, perceived skills, and abilities to manage a new venture, and entrepreneurial intentions to start a new venture. We discuss relationships between entrepreneurship research and university teaching and make specific suggestions on how further work on improving measurement in entrepreneurship will benefit both research and teaching effectiveness.

This article investigates the value of integrating the constructs of self-leadership and spirituality as a resource for entrepreneurs to handle entrepreneurial demands/stressors. Entrepreneurship requires individuals to use their personal resources as they develop their business ventures. Entrepreneurs face multiple challenges as they start and grow their endeavors. We propose a conceptual model showing how the constructs of spirituality and self-leadership influence each other and have an impact on the thought patterns and self-efficacy of the entrepreneur. In turn, the entrepreneur thought patterns and self-efficacy enable the entrepreneur to more effectively confront demands/stressors and thus improve entrepreneurial firm performance.

PurposeIn the early twenty‐first century organization scholars and managers face an economic outlook full of daunting challenges. With investors, workers, and other stakeholders distressed and hostile toward corporate executives and boards due to recent corporate scandals, the future for many industries and firms appears grim. In what ways can business history help corporate managers and new venture entrepreneurs overcome these leadership challenges? This paper seeks to uncover practices throughout the Boeing Company's management history that offer today's executives and board members numerous examples of industry vision and leadership.Design/methodology/approachVisionary leadership theory is used to help understand Boeing's actions. A theory of visionary entrepreneurial leadership is proposed based on Boeing's history. Four specific cases of aircraft design and development decisions and actions are presented as examples of executive and board directors' vision and leadership.FindingsBoeing has served as the aircraft industry's innovator and leader for over nine decades by designing and building path‐breaking airplanes when no other aircraft manufacturer would venture similar risks to their reputation and capital. Furthermore, Boeing executives and board directors have repeatedly made risky decisions that – if the prototype literately crashed and burned – would probably bankrupt the company. Management's vision was always on the next great airplane, never on individual image or personal wealth.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research directions are presented suggesting a focus on firm executives and boards of directors' decisions and how these decisions influence industry wide innovation and development.Originality/valueThe paper analyses the leadership attributes of Boeing executives over the last nine decades.

This article summarizes four contributions that were presented in a professional development workshop at the 2013 Academy of Management conference. The goal of the workshop was to discuss impediments to the theoretical advancement of social entrepreneurship. This paper's first two contributors discuss assumptions and boundaries of social entrepreneurship, exhibiting contrasting views of whether theory should be aggregated or disaggregated. The other two scholars focus on specific topics that advance social entrepreneurship research, specifically, studying the implicit normative underpinning of social entrepreneurship and social innovation processes. This is part three of a three-part series dealing with the future of social entrepreneurship research and theory.