Leadership as a driver of entrepreneurship: an international exploratory study

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of cultural leadership factors (charismatic/value-based, team oriented, participative, humane, autonomous and self-protective) on the rates of opportunity and necessity entrepreneurship. Design/methodology/approach The study integrates insights from institutional and cultural leadership theories to provide a fresh perspective to advance comparative entrepreneurship research. To test the hypotheses, the authors conduct a multiple regression analysis with observations from 34 countries, using data (from the year 2013) from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor for the dependent variable and from Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness to create leadership factors as independent variables. Findings The results show that all the types of leadership considered in the study have a relevant effect on entrepreneurial activity. However, charismatic leadership has a greater effect on entrepreneurial activity, particularly on opportunity entrepreneurship. The research also shows that autonomous leadership has a negative impact on entrepreneurial activity, although, when it is moderated by the humane dimension, this relationship changes. Practical implications Since the alternative dimensions facilitate or inhibit the generation of new firm creation, it is critical for researchers, teachers and leaders to learn about and to foster such leadership types. Originality/value This research covers a gap in the cross-cultural evidence presented in the literature and suggests the integration of the concepts leadership and entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurial Leadership Across Countries: The Role of Informal Institutions

“…Most recent findings suggest small but significant relationships between informal institutions such as cognitive ability, values, attitudes, leadership emergence and effectiveness (Felfe and Schyns 2014), as well as with organisational strategies (Koryak et al 2015). Similarly, there is an approach suggesting that informal institutions affect entrepreneurial leadership, where independence, risk taking, religious faith and networking were used as examples of these types of institutions (Felix et al 2018;Swiercz and Lydon 2002). These variables are in line with the Schwartz Theory of Basic Values (Schwartz 2012), which have also often been associated with leadership (van Hemmen et al 2015) and entrepreneurship (Liñán et al 2016).…”

“…Much of the initial research in the field of entrepreneurship has focused on identifying characteristics that differentiate entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs (McClelland 1961). In this sense, it is suggested that the extant literature largely analyses leadership and entrepreneurship separately (Harrison et al 2015), though, there are few authors who specifically deal with the relationship between leadership and entrepreneurship (Ensley et al 2003;Felix et al 2018;Koryak et al 2015). This scarcity of studies is surprising considering the coincidences between the traits of leaders and entrepreneurs, who are affected by the environment where they interact (van Hemmen et al 2015).…”

Assessing the Development of Entrepreneurial Competencies

“…Centralization is one of the biggest problems that managers face. Felix et al [11] state that delegating tasks efficiently is one of the greatest skills that an entrepreneur can have.…”

The Effect of Personality on EPL Self-Efficacy and Outcome Expectations among Graduates in Nigerian Universities

“…Also, we expect that these traits will positively influence leadership self-efficacy. This is premised on the high relationship that has been found (Butler, 2017;Felix, Aparicio, & Urbano, 2019) between entrepreneurship and leadership. Furthermore, Chan et al (2015) found a positive correlation between personality traits and entrepreneurial and leadership aspects of EPL motivation.…”