Entrepreneurial leadership: setting the scene for a behavioural approach.

The commonalities in behavioural and attitudinal approaches of business leaders towards entrepreneurship have led to the devise of the attractive – yet not fully defined and measured – concept of entrepreneurial leadership (EL). The most recent study laying the foundations for definition and measurement of the concept have tested a scale of EL based on followers’ evaluation of their leader’s behaviours using two dimensions of leadership behaviour (Renko et al, 2015). Role modelling was defined as implementing a leading-by-example strategy to become a lived role model of entrepreneurial behaviour, while influencing involved using communication and active motivation to encourage employees’ entrepreneurial orientation. To contribute to this research stream we have designed and implemented a multi-method study that addresses Renko et al’s (2015) call for further analyses of EL behaviours to fill in knowledge gaps related to behaviour emergence and evolution