ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP

Entrepreneurial leadership

Entrepreneurial leadership

Introduction

Entrepreneurial leadership occurs when business owners utilize creative and innovative thinking to form the basic elements of a firm's strategic management plan. As firms compete for a share of the marketplace, entrepreneurial leadership is a result of amalgamating entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial management with leadership. As a result of this combination of different constructs, entrepreneurial leaders are able to help their firms achieve a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Additionally, entrepreneurial leaders strive to utilize all of their resources to the maximum potential. V. Gupta, MacMillan, and Surie (2004) defined entrepreneurial leadership as “leadership that creates visionary scenarios that are used to assemble and mobilize a 'supporting cast' of participants who become committed by the vision to the discovery and exploitation of strategic value creation” (p. 242). However, many entrepreneurial leaders face a great challenge in finding the resources they need and optimize the use of those resources. Entrepreneurial leaders may also have difficulty in locating committed supporters of their vision. Many studies have been conducted on entrepreneurship. Moreover, many studies and theories have been completed on leadership.

Entrepreneurial leadership Definition

This term is the result of combining parts of two theoretical schools: entrepreneurship and leadership. The importance of this construct is that not all entrepreneurs view themselves as leaders; many tend to, just exhibit managerial traits. However, it is imperative that entrepreneurs focus on leadership attributes.

Discussion

Entrepreneurial leadership requires perception to create a new vision of the future. Entrepreneurial leaders focus on new opportunities and solutions. Entrepreneurial leaders are diverse and come from diverse backgrounds. For example, women entrepreneurs represent a variety of skills, backgrounds, and personalities and are a diverse group in themselves. Women entrepreneurs explore entrepreneurship as a way to achieve self-satisfaction and desire for additional challenge.

Entrepreneurial leadership is a process where the leaders unleash their creative potential as they help their organizations realize their potential. Organizations that are led by entrepreneurial leaders create and control their unique environments, are more creative, and become more productive in the process as they create and realize their vision. Entrepreneurial leaders then empower employees to act on this vision, to push the organization forward. Entrepreneurial leaders are noted as change agents. Through inspiration, these leaders initiate successful change within their organizations in an era where knowledge-based enterprises are expanding and quickly changing. Entrepreneurial leaders develop networks through aligned relationships. These networks and relationships in turn help develop the entrepreneurial leaders themselves.

In recent years, researchers have combined the two concepts of entrepreneurship and leadership to formalize the entrepreneurial leadership construct. In his description of entrepreneurial leaders, Cohen distinguished between two types of entrepreneurial leaders: (a) people who reside at the top of the organization or institution who have broad responsibilities; or (b) individuals at any level of the organization who work to "uncover and pursue opportunities for constructive change" (Cohen, 2004). In the former role, leaders set vision and created a culture throughout the organization that takes initiative to achieve the vision. In the former role, it is not just individuals ...