Entrepreneurial Leadership

Solution Preview

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Hi,

Interesting questions. Let's take a closer look at information from various sources, which you can draw on for your final copy. I also attached two supporting articles.

RESPONSE:

1. What are the strengths and potential weaknesses of entrepreneurial leadership?

Entrepreneur ship is a relatively new, sometimes controversial, and burgeoning field of management research. Although leadership has been studied since around 500 BC, the subject of entrepreneurial leadership is new to the field. Entrepreneurial leadership has been coined by those who realize a change in leadership style is necessary in order for America's businesses, large and small, to be competitive with the rest of the world. (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3972/is_200504/ai_n14681390).

STRENGTHS

One way to look at the strengths of entrepreneurial leadership is to consider the characteristics of entrepreneur firms and entrepreneurial leadership, which are really the strengths that lead to success. The idea is that entrepreneurs to cope with their need to excel and explore new vistas use these characteristics. However, Entrepreneurial strengths tend to be individual characteristics or behaviors, such as vision, problem solving, decision-making, risk taking, and strategic initiatives. Based on a review of the literature, both leaders and entrepreneurs are successful largely to the extent that they provide

(1) strategic leadership (vision and long-term goals);
(2) problem-solving skills;
(3) timely decision-making;
(4) a willingness to accept risks; and
(5) good negotiating skills. (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3972/is_200504/ai_n14681390).

Also see the two attached article for other researched characteristics of entrepreneurial leadership.

On the other hand, research suggests that entrepreneurial firms are small, fast-growing, organic, and network-based rather than mechanistic and bureaucratic (from attached article). For instance, Sayles and Stewart (1995) defined entrepreneurship as having three components:

(1) It is activity that seizes profit opportunities without regard to resources currently controlled (Stevenson & Jarillo, 1990, as cited in (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3972/is_200504/ai_n14681390).
(2) It expands existing resources through enhanced learning, synergies, or bootstrapping (Burgelman, 1983; Leibstein, 1968; Stewart, 1989; Venkataraman, McMillan & McGrath, 1992, as cited in (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3972/is_200504/ai_n14681390); and
(3) It promotes change and innovation leading to new combinations of resources and new ways of doing business (Burgelman, 1983; Schumpeter, 1943, as cited in http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3972/is_200504/ai_n14681390) (see attached article).

Nine traits that also lead to successful, associated with entrepreneurial leadership are:

(1) Having a Healthy Sense of Self-worth (Self-Esteem)

Underlying everything, is a high sense of one's own self-worth. Without that, individuals will never undertake tough challenges. If one does not have it, it's important to develop self-esteem.

(2) Having a Need to Achieve

This need has been associated with entrepreneurs and leaders who constantly seek to perform at their best. For example, this leadership need would have described Oliver Cromwell (1599 to 1658, as cited in http://www.legacee.com/Info/Leadership/LeadershipEntrepreneurial.html).) the Lord Protector of England, who once remarked, "He who stops being better, stops being good." The great Harvard psychologist David McClelland is most associated with need for achievement, a need learned by children primarily from their parents (McClelland, ...