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The purpose of this paper is to refine our understanding of entrepreneurial leadership by developing a multi-dimensional measure for the construct through a comprehensive approach based on the skills and competencies of entrepreneurial leaders as well as their behaviour and roles.

Following the evidence collected across two cultural and economic contexts namely Iran and Scotland and prior theoretical conceptualisations, this study designed an entrepreneurial leadership scale. Questionnaires were the mode of data collection, and data was triangulated via participants and literature.

From the study a detailed conceptualisation of entrepreneurial leadership was formed, which in turn provides the basis for an empirical-based construct of this phenomenon and its measurement from a cross-cultural perspective. Specifically, this study identifies the items that best describe each dimension of entrepreneurial leadership. By these findings, this study provides the skills, competencies and specific behaviour of entrepreneurial leaders.

The findings of this study have implications the theory and practice. By highlighting the dimensions of entrepreneurial leadership, this study assists the development of theories on how entrepreneurial leadership influence the process of innovation and opportunity recognition. This study is one of the first to examine the validity and reliability of the measure developed for the construct across two countries having different cultural and economic contexts, namely Iran and Scotland. In practice, the findings of this study serve as a useful reference for practitioners of the skills, behaviours and competencies expected of entrepreneurial leaders.

The current study, which is based on social learning theory and social cognitive theory, intends to investigate the impact of entrepreneurial leadership on employee creativity at both the individual and team levels. In particular, the authors predict a mediating mechanism at both levels: employees’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Further, the authors consider whether the climate of support for innovation is a contextual element affecting the relationship between employees’ perceptions of entrepreneurial leadership and their own entrepreneurial self-efficacy.

The research hypotheses were tested using multilevel structural equation modeling on 191 employees nested in 49 entrepreneurial ventures in China.

The results indicated that entrepreneurial leadership positively correlates with employee creativity at individual level. Moreover, this study found that individual followers’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy partially mediates the association between individual perceptions of entrepreneurial leadership and employee creativity, whereas team members’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy fully mediates the association between team members’ perceptions of supervisors’ entrepreneurial leadership and employee creativity. Further, this research demonstrates the role of team-level climate of support for innovation as a boundary condition that strengthens the effect of entrepreneurial leadership on individual entrepreneurial self-efficacy.

Considering entrepreneurial self-efficacy to be a type of entrepreneurial context-specific self-efficacy, this study presents one of the first empirical examples of the mediating function of entrepreneurial self-efficacy in the association between entrepreneurial leadership and employee creativity. Additionally, this research demonstrates the role of team-level climate of support for innovation as a boundary condition that strengthens the effect of entrepreneurial leadership on individual entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Further, this study provides a methodological contribution by simultaneously assessing all three variables of the mediation process at the individual and team levels: entrepreneurial leadership, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and employee creativity.

Entrepreneurial leadership has been developed from the existing leadership and entrepreneurship literature as a new leadership theory to meet the dynamic changes in the 21st century. Accordingly, the main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of entrepreneurial leadership on employee creativity and the mediating influence of psychological empowerment and psychological safety, with the lens of social learning theory.

Data were collected from the manufacturing sector of Pakistan with a sample size of 280 dyads of managers and employees. A two-step analytical strategy was adopted through which the measurement model was validated by using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to estimate the structural model to fit the data. The bootstrapping method was applied for testing the mediation analysis.

The current study found that entrepreneurial leadership positively related to employee creativity. Moreover, it was found that psychological empowerment and psychological safety mediated the relationships between entrepreneurial leadership and employee creativity.

The findings of the current study provide guidance to managers and businessmen on how to develop the creative skills of employees by adopting entrepreneurial leadership behaviors. Besides, this study enriches the literature by exploring the performance mechanism of entrepreneurial leadership to develop employee creativity.

The current study is considered the first to examine the role of entrepreneurial leaders in stimulating employee creativity through psychological safety and psychological empowerment. As such, it enriches the creativity literature by exploring the employee creativity mechanism through entrepreneurial leadership and validating the importance of psychological factors in the development of creativity compared to previous studies, which have focused primarily on the concept or scale development of entrepreneurial leadership. Furthermore, it provides several theoretical and managerial implications along with future opportunities.

This paper aims to validate the measurement of entrepreneurial leadership (EL) in the context of innovation management and strategic entrepreneurship, and to examine the relationship between EL and the innovation process (IP). It proposes the measurement of EL and outlines the reason and the importance of EL in the IP. The study further examines whether the IP would have direct impact on innovation performance.

The paper opted for an explanatory and confirmatory study using a quantitative approach employing an online survey/questionnaire distributed to two groups of employees representing middle and senior management having mixed background such as finance, marketing, operations and management. The first group consists of 222 respondents spread across multiple industries, and the second group consists of 60 respondents mainly from the financial services industry to validate the measurement of the EL construct.

The paper provides empirical insights into the validation of EL measurement through two samples, and on the impact of EL in fostering all elements in the IP (i.e. idea generation, idea selection and development or idea conversion and idea diffusion). The paper also confirms some of the literature views on the difficulty of identifying a significant relationship between the IP and innovation performance. It suggests counterintuitively that the IP may not necessarily have a positive relationship with innovation performance.

Most of the respondents were those from the financial services industry, which may have an impact on the overall model but less on the validation of the EL measurement. The research affirms the theoretical concept of the dimensions of EL and validates its measurement. The research also shows intriguing findings on the missing link between the IP and innovation performance. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to identify variables or factors that should link the influence of the IP on innovation performance so that the contribution of innovation management to competitiveness can be clearly identified.

The research validates the measurement of the EL construct, which could be used as a screening tool in measuring the EL capacity at all levels within an organization as part of its leadership development in fostering its IP.

This paper fulfills an identified need to have a validated measurement of EL and its relationship with the IP.

Innovation has become a necessity for the information technology (IT) sector, especially during COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this study aims to investigate how knowledge sharing affects employees’ innovative work behavior (IWB). Specifically, the study examined occupational self-efficacy (as mediating mechanism) and entrepreneurial leadership (as boundary condition) to encourage IWB.

The study used social media platforms to collect data from 270 employees working in the IT sector through “google forms” on convenience basis between March and August, 2021. The study applied structural equation modeling in two stages to examine the measurement model (for uni-dimensionality) and the structural model (for hypotheses testing).

The study noted that knowledge sharing positively affects employees’ IWB and occupational self-efficacy positively explains this association. In addition, employees’ perception of entrepreneurial leadership strengthens the association between knowledge sharing and IWB.

The study collected data from a developing country during COVID-19 by using a cross-sectional design that may restrict causality. However, the findings suggest the management not only encourages knowledge sharing environment but also engages employees in various training that motivate them to experiment with new ideas and techniques.

This study extends the existing literature on knowledge sharing and IWB by exploring occupational self-efficacy as mediating mechanism and entrepreneurial leadership as a boundary condition.

Creativity is vital for the innovation and survival of organizations. The present study aimed to explore the impact of entrepreneurial leadership on team creativity through team psychological safety and knowledge sharing. Social learning theory (SLT) was used to explore the relationships in this study.

Data were collected from the manufacturing sector of Pakistan, and a sample composed of 70 team leaders and 378 team members was used.

The results showed the positive influence of entrepreneurial leadership on team creativity. Furthermore, team psychological safety and knowledge sharing mediated the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and team creativity. Finally, team psychological safety and knowledge sharing sequentially mediated the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and team creativity.

A small sample size and cross-sectional research design may hinder the generalizability of the findings. The findings suggest that leaders should practice entrepreneurial leadership principles to develop team creativity. Organizations should provide training and development programmes for their leaders and employees to learn the importance of entrepreneurial behaviors and how to explore and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities.

This study extends the leadership and creativity literature by exploring the role of entrepreneurial leadership in developing team creativity. Furthermore, this study was conducted in established organizations to explore entrepreneurial leadership's influence on team creativity. In contrast, earlier scholars recognized entrepreneurial leadership as a leadership style of entrepreneurs and thus examined its implications in new ventures or small and medium enterprises.

Drawing on the knowledge-based view (KBV), the study investigates the impact of entrepreneurial leadership (EL) on knowledge management (KM) processes and further examines the mediating role of KM processes on the linkage between EL and project success (PS).

Survey data were collected from 304 project workers in software projects, and the proposed relationships were assessed through SMART-PLS structural equation modeling tool.

The study found a significant impact of EL on KM processes and PS. The analysis also revealed that KM processes significantly impact project success while EL impact PS indirectly through KM processes.

The relevancy of the research stems from the scarcity of research on EL, while studies on the role of leadership as a predictor of KM are significantly limited. Additionally, there is a scarcity of research on the impact of KM on project success. This is one of the earliest studies that investigate the inter-relationship among EL, KM processes and project success.

Constructed upon a knowledge-based view, the purpose of this paper aims to empirically examine the entrepreneurial leadership impact as knowledge management enabler on knowledge management processes and knowledge management processes on project success. The study further ascertains the mediating role of knowledge worker satisfaction among knowledge management processes and project success.

Using the data collected from 302 project workers from the software industry, China. The research used structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze the hypothesis relationships using smart-PLS 3.2.9.

The outcome of the study reveals that entrepreneurial leadership has a substantial significant impact on knowledge management processes, and knowledge management processes influence project success via knowledge worker satisfaction as a mediator both directly and indirectly. Moreover, the study found partial mediation of knowledge worker satisfaction between knowledge management processes and project success.

The current research identifies that entrepreneurial leadership may play a role in fostering knowledge management processes in project-based organizations (e.g. software industry) that can use the knowledge management processes to increase their chances of project success. More broadly, the current study contributes to the entrepreneurial leadership, knowledge management processes, knowledge worker satisfaction and project success existing literature and strengthens the relationship and suggest that how project manager's value knowledge worker satisfaction and help organizations gain competitive advantage and project success.

Although there is an increased significance of knowledge management in the software industry, there is a lack of research that examines the enabling factors and outcomes of knowledge management practices. The present study is one of the first studies to ascertain the relationship of entrepreneurial leadership, knowledge management processes, knowledge worker satisfaction and project success. This is one of the initial researches that not only empirically examines the interrelationships among these variables but also enlighten insights into the current literature by instantaneous investigation of the mediating role of knowledge worker satisfaction.

This study aims to empirically assess entrepreneurial leadership skills’ role in Corporate Sustainable Development (CSD) and firm performance (FP). This study considers five specific entrepreneurial traits: innovativeness, creativity, analytical thinking, emotional intelligence and passion and motivation. The motivation for this investigation stems from concerns over micro-firms vulnerabilities and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) lacking proper leadership skills. This study is guided by the resource-based view theory and conducted during the pandemic, offering insights into firms operating under constrained conditions.

Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM), were used on survey responses from 321 Bahraini firms. This study’s data collection occurred under environmental uncertainties due to the pandemic and provides a unique context for understanding CSD and entrepreneurial leadership skills under high business/environmental uncertainty.

The findings reveal that entrepreneurial leadership skills positively impact CSD and firm performance through creativity, passion and motivation. However, innovativeness negatively affects CSD and FP. Furthermore, CSD positively influences firm performance.

Theoretical and practical implications, plus limitations, are also discussed in this study.

Understanding entrepreneurial leadership skills effect on CSD and firm performance in SMEs is important as SEMs are prone to fail in the early years. This study’s findings and its implications help guide SME leaders in furthering their entrepreneurial leadership skills to foster CSD and firm performance.

This study contributes to comprehending the crucial role of entrepreneurial skills, during uncertain times of the pandemic, for SMEs’ survival. It provides valuable insights for firms operating in competitive environments, offering a unique perspective on the required entrepreneurial skills and their effect on CSD and firm performance.

The dynamic business environment of all industries is forcing organizations to restructure their organizational philosophy and strategies to gain and maintain competitive advantage. To grapple with this rapidly changing environment, organizations are required to be more intrapreneurial in their operations. However, very few studies have been conducted on knowing the antecedent of intrapreneurship in organizations; thus the purpose of this paper is to fill this gap. This study strived to investigate the association among styles of leadership and intrapreneurial behavior (IB) of employees in the presence of psychological empowerment (PE) as mediator in higher educational institutes in Pakistan.

A deductive approach of logic was taken to formulate and test the hypotheses. A structured questionnaire was developed and sent to 350 Academic staff of Universities in Pakistan, out of which 280 responses were collected. A structured equation modeling technique was utilized to analyze the hypotheses.

Findings revealed a positive impact of transformational leadership (TL) and authentic leadership on IB, while a negative association between transactional leadership and IB was found. Contrary to these results, no significant association was observed between IB and passive- avoidant leadership. In addition, mediation analysis was run using the bootstrapping function of SmartPLS. Results showed that the association among TL, authentic leadership and IB were mediated by PE; however, the association of transactional leadership, passive-avoidant leadership and IB was not mediated by empowerment.

This study contributed to the knowledge domain of leadership as well as intrapreneurship. The study may help practitioners and academicians understand organizational factors such as leadership behavior, which might foster IB.